Christian Science is simple and practical. It shows us how we can practice Jesus' teachings and solve all our problems. Its practice requires wholehearted obedience to and understanding of the First Commandment, the acceptance of God, good, and His creation—man and the universe—as the only reality. It also requires adherence to the Golden Rule of loving one's fellow man as oneself. This means replacing the false concept, with its claims of sin, sickness, and discord, with the spiritual facts regarding the perfect man of God's creating.

To be obedient to the First Commandment we must love God so much that we reject from our thinking all that is ungodlike. This requires knowing God as Spirit and rejecting matter beliefs, knowing God as Love and rejecting hate, knowing Truth as reality and rejecting error as unreality. Actually man cannot help obeying God, Spirit, the all-powerful, ever-present, all-knowing Mind, for man is His image and likeness, His reflection. As one's thinking is brought into line with the truth of God's power and presence, one's human experience becomes more harmonious.

Faced with the suggestion of sickness, the Christian Scientist, who obeys the First Commandment to "have no other gods," affirms and maintains in consciousness the Biblical truth (Deut. 4:35), "The Lord he is God; there is none else beside him." He realizes that because man, God's image and likeness, reflects perfection he cannot be sick, and that true selfhood always expresses God. Discord of whatever kind has no history; it is in fact unreal because God is the only cause. Man, as the Scripture says, lives, moves, and has his being in God; so error of any sort cannot reach him. God is no respecter of persons; so the truth that makes free can be practiced by anyone, regardless of the time he has been acquainted with this Science.

Mary Baker Eddy instructs us in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 495): "When the illusion of sickness or sin tempts you, cling steadfastly to God and His idea. Allow nothing but His likeness to abide in your thought." A boy who felt very ill in assembly at school remembered what he had been taught in the Christian Science Sunday School regarding man's immunity from disease and danger. He reasoned: "This illness is not the truth of being. In reality, I am the perfect child of God, and He is taking care of me." The sickness left suddenly, and he was able to assure the teacher, who had noticed his distress, that he was all right. He felt very happy and grateful, for this was the first time he had proved for himself what he had learned in Sunday School, and he never forgot this proof of God's loving care.

On the first page of Science and Health Mrs. Eddy writes, "Desire is prayer; and no loss can occur from trusting God with our desires, that they may be moulded and exalted before they take form in words and in deeds." In his practice of Christian Science the student constantly checks his thinking to see if his desires are pure and unselfish. If so, he is prepared to accept God's will in place of his own human sense of what he should do. This is elucidated in the following illustrations.

Sometimes one believes he has a talent and longs to develop it. But if he feels he has no opportunity to do this, a sense of frustration may haunt him. Such a problem, Christian Science teaches, can be solved by trusting God to bring to fruition every right desire. Holding thought steadfastly to the truth that His way is perfect, and that no talent He gives can be wasted, one finds the opportunity to use God-bestowed talents.

Again, one may be presented with a number of opportunities, but be unable to decide which one will be best. Confident that God's way is right, whether it lies in the path of one's desire or elsewhere, and that He does not permit mistakes, we are guided to choose the right course. The Psalmist sang (Ps. 16:11), "Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy." Practicing Christian Science in all our daily affairs results in the fulfillment of this promise.

The temptation to rebel at certain laws of the land which claim to interrupt the course of daily living, such as compulsory military service, is silenced as one acknowledges that God alone governs and guides man. For this acknowledgment will contribute toward strengthening or changing or repealing any law on the basis of what is right.

A young sublieutenant on active service in the Royal Navy in the recent World War, who had witnessed healings in Christian Science of members of his family, increasingly put into practice his knowledge of God and man. A striking instance of protection occurred at the evacuation of Dunkirk when the destroyer in which he was serving was struck and quite quickly sunk. So conscious was he of God's presence and care, and of man's freedom from danger because of his ever abiding in God's spiritual kingdom, that he was enabled without fear or harm to leave the deck of the sinking destroyer and board a vessel alongside.

The practice of Christian Science means steadfast obedience to the First Commandment, adherence to divine Principle, God, alone. Meek acceptance of human demands or mere cheerfulness in unpleasant circumstances is not Christian Science demonstration. Assuredly the path which leads to spiritual growth is spiritualization of thought, an understanding of God as Love and our fellow man as in reality the likeness of God. Christian Science practice really means to express, or reflect, God, good. In the degree we do this we shall demonstrate more of our God-given talents.

In "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" Mrs. Eddy writes (p. 5), "The First Commandment of the Hebrew Decalogue, 'Thou shalt have no other gods before me,' and the Golden Rule are the all-in-all of Christian Science." And farther on she says, "The spiritual understanding which demonstrates Christian Science, enables the devout Scientist to worship, not an unknown God, but Him whom, understanding even in part, he continues to love more and to serve better."