Editorial February 24, 1951 Issue

THE OBJECTIVE OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE

Helen Wood Bauman

When Christ Jesus entered upon his ministry, he stressed two points: that the kingdom of God is very near, and that repentance is necessary to gain entrance into it. He said (Matt. 4:17), "Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." In his teaching these two points were always conjoined; and so they are in Christian Science, which requires not only the understanding that absolute spiritual perfection is the sole reality of being, but a recognition of the falsity of fleshly existence and repentance genuine enough to heal its delusive states of sin, sickness, limitation, and every mortal distress.

The objective of Christian Science is noble and spiritually lofty. It is to unveil the kingdom of Spirit, God; to reveal man and the universe in their perfect spiritual substance. The attainment of this objective is inseparable from the healing and reformation of the human self, compassionate steps of faith and purification that can never be omitted if the godless sense of mind as mortal and evil is to be proved nonexistent. Mary Baker Eddy says in her sermon, "The People's Idea of God" (p. 9), "Christian Science has one faith, one Lord, one baptism; and this faith builds on Spirit, not matter; and this baptism is the purification of mind,—not an ablution of the body, but tears of repentance, an overflowing love, washing away the motives for sin; yea, it is love leaving self for God."

Sickness and poverty, discord and sin, are symptoms of materialism. They are signs that the beliefs of matter and its conditions have not been resigned and fully abandoned. The healing of them is a definite objective of Christian Science, for healing is the only proof we can have, that the kingdom of heaven is being entered. Mrs. Eddy says of her own Christian purpose (Retrospection and Introspection, p. 30): "The motive of my earliest labors has never changed. It was to relieve the sufferings of humanity by a sanitary system that should include all moral and religious reform."

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