The ministry of Christian Science is compassionate and helpful. It heals all human ills on the basis that God is Love, that Love is All, and that man is perfect and spiritual, as Love alone could create him. This premise entails the intelligent denial of all that contradicts it, such as the seeming absence of Love's control, the existence of an evil mind, and the sense of man as imperfect and mortal.

In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," its author, Mary Baker Eddy, includes the chapter "Christian Science Practice," in which she sets forth with careful detail the requirements for Christian healing. Before taking up the scientific arguments designed to explain the mental method of Christian Science treatments and other aspects of the subject of healing, Mrs. Eddy devotes several pages to a discussion of Christ Jesus' meeting with a woman "which was a sinner" at the house of Simon the Pharisee (Luke 7:36–50).

In this discussion our Leader shows the state of thought which wins the recognition of Christ, the regenerated consciousness which turns from materialism and seeks Truth—not for selfish advantage, but in humbleness and devotion of heart. This woman's repentance and reformation, her love and reverence for the Master, evidenced her spiritual purification. She stands as the type of regenerated thought which is devoutly grateful for release from error and thus fitted to behold the risen Christ, God's immortal idea. This is the state of consciousness which the Christian healer yearns to attain.

Bringing this tender lesson home to her own beloved followers, our Leader contrasts the self-righteousness and scorn of Simon with the deep contrition and affection of Mary Magdalene. She says in Science and Health (p. 364), "If Christian Scientists are like Simon, then it must be said of them also that they love little." And she questions, "On the other hand, do they show their regard for Truth, or Christ, by their genuine repentance, by their broken hearts, expressed by meekness and human affection, as did this woman?"

Mrs. Eddy warns against perfunctory, theoretical argument in the attempt to heal, since true Christian Science expresses the warmth of divine Love and must be practiced in the spirit of tender compassion for the sufferer. She writes (ibid., p. 367), "This is what is meant by seeking Truth, Christ, not 'for the loaves and fishes,' nor, like the Pharisee, with the arrogance of rank and display of scholarship, but like Mary Magdalene, from the summit of devout consecration, with the oil of gladness and the perfume of gratitude, with tears of repentance and with those hairs all numbered by the Father." The density of materialism, the self-justification that supports matter and lends itself to the proud currents of mortal belief, must yield to the presence of God and His Christ, the divine ideal, before one will be able to heal himself or others and thereby demonstrate some measure of the harmony that is real and eternal.

Divine Science teaches mankind how to rise above the mortal sense of existence to the realization of true being in God. It requires that even the moral individual forsake the belief of life in matter and awake from the delusion that man is subject to death. It calls for sincerity that loves Spirit as the only substance, and integrity that demonstrates the transforming qualities of divine Love as the true nature of man. It provides the declarations of pure Science, but it demands the working out of those statements in the present evidence of Christian living.

It is when the need for regeneration is unheeded that the argument of Science seems unavailing and the healing slow. Only by living the ideal truths one acknowledges as real is he lifted above the sense of man as corporeal into the consciousness which, even when momentarily glimpsed, brings healing and release from the illusions of matter. Mrs. Eddy says in her Message to The Mother Church for 1902 (p. 8), "Scientific Christianity works out the rule of spiritual love; it makes man active, it prompts perpetual goodness, for the ego, or I, goes to the Father, whereby man is Godlike."

In absolute Science, the realm of real being, the ego, or I, never leaves the Father. In so-called human experience the ego goes to the Father only as one expresses "perpetual goodness," the nature of the real, Godlike man. Healing becomes spontaneous and adequate in the degree that God is understood as All, and man's real selfhood, or ego, is seen to be, not an independent mind, but the idea of the one infinite Mind. This ego, or I, is the reflection of God, the one infinite Ego, and it cannot escape perfection. It embodies the elements of divine Mind, is mentally formed by Mind, and eternally radiates the purity and goodness of Mind in constant and harmonious action. It knows no limitation, is not conscious of matter and its ills, but perpetually expresses the freedom of the Love it represents.

We identify ourselves as that perfect idea of Mind in the measure that we demonstrate its purity and perfection by understanding it as the only selfhood we possess. The effect of Science is to awaken human consciousness to forsake the belief of mortal existence for the realization that, now and ever, man is the perfect, spiritual son of the one God. Regeneration comes quickly or slowly in the measure that the truth of man's perfection is received in the affections and humbly cherished. To linger in a state of remorse and depression over past mistakes is no more scientific than to expect to reach heaven or the spiritual reality of being without proper reformation. Christian Science points out the true way: repentance, regeneration, and the understanding of man's eternal, sinless existence in God. Those who follow our Leader's instructions win the commendation of Christ, and the proof of this commendation is unmistakable, for it is found in the power to express divine Love by healing and uplifting mankind.

Helen Wood Bauman