Article May 24, 1941 Issue

"The secret of Christian Science"

WILLIAM HALE COOMBER

Thousands who have heard of Christian Science, and are confident that it is capable of proof and that it heals, do not as yet know its secret. Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, in her Message to The Mother Church for 1900, explains its secret thus (p. 9): "The secret of Christian Science in right thinking and acting is open to mankind, but few, comparatively, see it; or, seeing it, shut their eyes and wait for a more convenient season."

Many would like to know what really constitutes right thinking, and how to practice it. Right thinking, of course, is the positive opposite of wrong thinking. An understanding of how to think rightly, and therefore to act rightly, can be achieved by an earnest study of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," and other writings by Mrs. Eddy, in conjunction with the Bible; and to continue in this right thinking one is immeasurably helped by the daily study of the Lesson-Sermons in the Christian Science Quarterly. Thinking rightly surely is a wholesome occupation, and brings glorious returns to all who, even in a degree, practice it in daily life.

What the individual thinks makes him what he is, whether he is conscious of it or not. The Christian Science teaching that there is but one Mind, God, and that the real man, the spiritual idea, reflects or expresses this Mind, makes it clear that all true thought emanates from God, good. Accordingly, the seeming opposite—thoughts of evil, sin, disease, and death—has no foundation in Truth or in the real man, and is in reality powerless, nothingness. The secret of Christian Science, then, is found in the ability of each one to think rightly, to think spiritual thoughts, which come from God, health-giving, life-giving thoughts, and to eschew evil thoughts, which do not come from God, are unknown to Him, and consequently to man, the image and likeness of God. To put it quite briefly, the necessity is to correct wrong thinking with right thinking.

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