The world takes for granted the belief that one's life exists in the flesh and is conditioned by matter; that the government of one's life depends upon material law, heredity, education, chance. With remarkable boldness Christian Science challenges this entrenched traditional estimate of life. Mary Baker Eddy says in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 6): "Mind governs all. That we exist in God, perfect, there is no doubt, for the conceptions of Life, Truth, and Love must be perfect; and with that basic truth we conquer sickness, sin, and death."

Here Mrs. Eddy not only states a revolutionary truth, but she tells us of the power to heal, which is inherent in this truth. Sin, sickness, and death are the effects of the mistaken belief that we live in a world of matter and "dwell in houses of clay" (Job 4:19). When we realize that matter and flesh are transitory illusions produced by false belief and that no one lives in a frail, fleshly body but in indestructible Spirit, God, we begin to feel the freedom of real life. We are at once healthier, our mental horizons expand, we are less bound by matter.

According to Christian Science, there is but one Life—God. And man dwells in Life as its reflection, never absorbing Life, but ever its perfect expression. Then man cannot die, nor can he be born, for Life, which gives him being, neither ends nor begins, but exists eternally. Christ Jesus was affirming his perfect and immortal existence in God when he said (John 17:5), "Now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was." The Master's life among men was a constant example of the effect which follows the understanding of his teaching that the fleshly sense of life "profiteth nothing" (John 6:63). One needs to realize that the glory of spiritual perfection is the normal state of man.

One can always recognize that he exists. In one's darkest moments this fact of life is apparent. That one exists in Life, in a state of perfect health and perfection, is not so readily seen. But this concept is factual, just as existence is factual; and it can be demonstrated through honest adherence to the truth. The more one actually expresses the Christly nature, the more convinced he becomes of his real, immortal being, and the more certain he is that all matter is illusion.

Mrs. Eddy says in "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" (p. 268), "This time-world flutters in my thought as an unreal shadow, and I can only solace the sore ills of mankind by a lively battle with 'the world, the flesh and the devil,' in which Love is the liberator and gives man the victory over himself." It was our Leader's knowledge that matter is "an unreal shadow" which equipped her to bring to light in such marked degree the substance of her real life in God. She saw as unreal the flesh, which seemed so convincing to mortals, and she demonstrated the intelligence, love, and sinlessness which the belief and fear of flesh claim to overshadow. Mrs. Eddy's realization that only perfection demonstrates perfection caused her to express great spirituality in her own life and to expect it of her followers. Perfect life in Spirit was not an abstraction to her but a fact which is ever present and which demands constant proof.

Often a healing through Christian Science is delayed because sufficient regeneration of character has not taken place in the individual needing to be healed. Lurking fear, rebellion, selfishness, lust, resentment, often need to be rooted out by the understanding of man's perfect existence in God before health appears as a fact. The moment human thought approximates the divine character and understanding, health and harmony are restored; for real, incorporeal being has appeared in a measure. The presence of spirituality has lessened the intensity of mortality.

As one endeavors to live the truth of perfection, the true consciousness of existence becomes more substantial to him, and the "time-world" appears to his thought "as an unreal shadow." Our great Master not only preached that the kingdom of God is at hand, but he dwelt consciously in that kingdom. His acquaintance with his own perfection in God made it possible for him to perceive perfection in others. And the perfect view destroyed the illusion of imperfection. Multitudes responded to the power of his true vision and went away comforted. They had touched true substance, unseen to the senses, which had brought them nearer to perfection.

One is often shocked by the sheer injustice of the material sense of existence, the poverty, frustration, sickness, ignorance, and sin by which mortals appear to be enslaved through circumstances that seem inevitable and unavoidable. But Christian Science is equal to the task of rousing those unfortunate individuals from the illusion of living in a material sense of life to the certain demonstration that man exists in all perfection in God forever.

The Father, being perfect Love, provides perfection for all. But this fact cannot be realized while one believes that the flesh is his dwelling place and that he is subject to the illusions of matter. One needs to stop looking for perfection in imperfect matter and to find his real self in Spirit. And one should remember Mrs. Eddy's words (Miscellaneous Writings. p. 104), "According to Christian Science, perfection is normal,—not miraculous."

Helen Wood Bauman