Editorial August 5, 1961 Issue

Spiritual Orientation

Ralph E. Wagers

It is natural for one who has experienced some of the benefits of Christian Science to want to find out what it is that brought about such benefits. The first thing he will want to do is to study the textbooks of this Science—the Bible and "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science. If he starts from the standpoint of being a mortal—as he probably will start—he may wonder how statements like this one apply to him: "The Christlike understanding of scientific being and divine healing includes a perfect Principle and idea,—perfect God and perfect man,—as the basis of thought and demonstration" (Science and Health, p. 259).

He will perhaps believe that this statement cannot possibly have anything to do with him. But why? Is it not because he has been conditioned by physiology to think of himself as a physical organism and by theology to consider himself to be a sinning mortal? What if he has? Has this any effect on his true identity? No.

A good illustration of this is the story that is told of a child born to a husband and wife who spent some time in an Asian country as missionaries. Soon afterward the parents perished in a severe plague, and the child was taken in by a native family and reared as one of their own.

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