Debt would seem to be a universally accepted condition, yet, as Christians, we have Paul's injunction, "Owe no man any thing, but to love one another." Since this condition is not good, because it is not of God, the only cause and creator, belief in its reality can be destroyed by the understanding that God, good, is the only presence and reality.

Jesus taught and demonstrated the omnipotence of good, but it was left to Mary Baker Eddy, who discerned Christian Science through spiritual inspiration, to reduce the Science of Christ to a system that all may use with certainty of success while living in obedience to its rules. This Science teaches us that both sin and sickness are healed by spiritual means. Referring to the healing power of the truth, Mrs. Eddy says in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 233): "The counter fact relative to any disease is required to cure it. The utterance of truth is designed to rebuke and destroy error."

Christian Science is based upon the Scriptural teaching that God, Spirit, is All, and that "there is none else." This statement denies the reality of matter, and reveals the solid foundation on which to build. It gives a complete and logical explanation of all the apparent inconsistencies concerning man and the universe, and is provable. Christ Jesus, in his sublime career, proved the unreality of matter and the allness of Spirit at every point, and left his example for every one of us to follow. Therefore do we acknowledge him as the Way-shower.

Since Spirit is infinite, the only creator, all creation is spiritual. Nothing material is real, since matter cannot exist in the infinity of Spirit. The real man is spiritual, without a single element of materiality, and he exists solely as the reflection of Spirit. God is expressed through man, who is the perfect reflection of God; and in true being there is nothing to interfere with, disturb, or destroy this expression.

This being so, material existence, so called, is but a false mental picture of scenes and conditions which are counterfeits of the real. These false pictures are never part of our real existence, though the spiritually uneducated human thought may believe in them, and so imagine itself to be the helpless victim of lack, limitation, and debt. That we may be convinced of the truth of these false concepts does not make them real or alter the divine facts of creation. Under the influence of hypnotic suggestion, a person sitting in an armchair by the fireside may be made to believe himself stranded on an ice floe, freezing with cold, but such a false mental picture, induced by suggestion, does not alter the facts of his actual place and condition. When he is aroused from the hypnotic state, the seeming cold and isolation disappear from his consciousness, being replaced by the normal recognition of his present comfort; and, realizing the unreality of his supposed ordeal, he suffers no ill effects. So does Christian Science arouse the human consciousness from its mesmeric dream of matter, lack, and debt to the realization of the allness, power, freedom, and abundance of Spirit.

Thus the real man can never be separated from Life, God, Spirit, but the human consciousness needs to be awakened and dedicated to Truth. "Owe no man any thing, but to love one another." To dedicate our lives to Truth is to dedicate our lives to Love, to live the Christ-spirit, expressed as we are loving, kind, considerate, and selfless. To do this we must heed our Leader's earnest request that we pray daily for ourselves, "not verbally, nor on bended knee, but mentally, meekly, and importunately" (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 127). We must pray for more grace, by which we can love and bless others, "heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils." We must daily examine our thinking to weed out the errors of self-love, self-will, self-righteousness, which would try to accumulate therein, and in the light of our understanding of true selfhood, destroy them. Thus doing, we shall become more and more conscious of the abundance of Love, of the riches of Spirit and of its unfailing supply, the burden of debt will be lifted, and the sense of limitation and lack will be lost in the knowledge of God.

As with individuals, so it is with churches, because the church membership is comprised of individuals. A Christian Science church is not dedicated until it is free of debt, and it is the earnest desire of its members to prove the availability of the law of God to solve their every problem. Church members striving to lift the indebtedness are dedicating their lives anew. They examine themselves to find if they have allowed apathy to take the place of their early enthusiasm; if criticism, self-satisfaction, or exclusiveness has gained a foothold in their thinking. They determine to be more loving to one another, more humble in their work, more consecrated in their prayer and study, more active and cheerful; and in this way individually they help to bring about the dedication of their church.

The message to the church at Ephesus in Revelation contains a valuable admonition, and also shows how to remove the false condition of spiritual impoverishment: "I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works." The selfless desire to benefit all mankind leads in the right way, and, as Mrs. Eddy expresses it in "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" (p. 232), "The right way wins the right of way, even the way of Truth and Love whereby all our debts are paid, mankind blessed, and God glorified."