The way to gain a comprehensive and demonstrable understanding of Christian Science involves, among other requirements, study, prayer, and fasting. Christ Jesus, rebuking ignorance of the Scriptures, said, "Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me," showing that eternal life is gained through an understanding of God and His Christ—a teaching opposite to the general belief that life is obtained and lost through materiality.

In our own time, Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science and author of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," was a devout student of the Bible. When the revelation of Truth came to her, she knew full well its inestimable value to mankind, and she endured great trials and hardships to ensure its propagation, through her elucidation of her discovery and through her Church organization. Thus tried and fortified, she could justly urge her followers to study and digest her writings, which reveal the truth of spiritual being.

Paul said, "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." For some persons, study of the Bible seems to be difficult. Some feel that they have never learned to study. Perhaps they have labeled themselves as inefficient and incapable in that respect. Such decisions master them and retard their growth heavenward, for there is plenty of evidence to show that all men can learn to study, whatever the price demanded in diligence and perseverance.

The scientific truth is that the perfect man, the spiritual image and likeness of God, the real selfhood, possesses by reflection every right quality, and never has there been any imperfection or falling away from completeness. What has testified to the contrary in human experience is a lie. Intelligence can be claimed and utilized in the same way as health, harmony, and happiness. Let it be understood that every quality emanating from God, good, is reflected by His spiritual creation, and it is incumbent on all mankind to awake now to what is the eternal spiritual status of man. The human consciousness can be corrected and instructed by an understanding of perfect God, perfect man and universe, existing unseen to the material senses, but discerned by spiritual sense. There exists an immutable relationship between God and spiritual man, and there is no other creation. Hear the words of Isaiah: "I am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God beside me."

There is a memorial inscription to a learned professor of art which reads as follows: "He taught an unseeing age to see." Christian Science is teaching men to perceive and appreciate the eternal qualities of man as God's reflection. Mrs. Eddy is more duly esteemed by students of her works as they realize the divine nature of her discovery and its freedom from materiality. No one since the time of Jesus has so clearly understood the nature of man. She writes (Science and Health, p. 475), "Man is idea, the image, of Love; he is not physique." No proper concept of Mrs. Eddy and her work can be gained by mere superficial study of Christian Science. And great good is vouchsafed to those who follow her instructions to impersonalize the qualities of God and accord to them their rightful place as reflections of Spirit, Mind. Thereby they prove the vitality and power of divine Love.

Therefore, instead of bemoaning the belief of insufficient education or other limitations, the student of Christian Science should lay hold of his birthright of intelligence and wisdom. He should meet every negative suggestion of incompetence with the truth of his at-one-ment with the one Mind, and declare his continuous spiritual status as the reflection of infinite Soul. He must give up the testimony of the senses and learn to accept the real man God knows, the son of the Father, entire, wanting nothing.

Seeking this knowledge involves prayer, and Mrs. Eddy writes (ibid., p. 15): "To enter into the heart of prayer, the door of the erring senses must be closed. Lips must be mute and materialism silent, that man may have audience with Spirit, the divine Principle, Love, which destroys all error." The Master, Christ Jesus, retired to quiet places to shut out the hue and cry of the material or corporeal senses and refresh himself through communion with God. Following his example, proportionately as students shut out the plea of materiality do they gain the ability to meditate on the things of Spirit, to dwell on the truths of perfect God, perfect man and universe. This dwelling in spiritual reality is what the Psalmist referred to when he wrote, "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty." And, thanks to Christian Science, the "secret place" can be found by all who will see for themselves, through study and prayer, that God, Spirit, is the only creator, and that all that He has made is "very good." Then they can more fully enjoy the promised and blessings set forth in the Scriptures.

In conscientious prayer the allness of God and the perfection of being are affirmed. These higher, clearer views of eternal goodness equip the human consciousness to deny evil and reduce it to its inherent nothingness. Discovering God to be self-existent and self-expressed leaves no place for His opposite—matter, sin, sickness, and death. Dwelling in such a realization lifts human consciousness above the claims of the world, the flesh, and the devil; brings about demonstration and victory, step by step, over the misfortunes and inharmonies common to mankind, and enables one to partake of the joy and health of man.

The insistent testimony of matter—sin, sickness, lack, unemployment, inactivity, and death—needs to be met by true fasting. That which denies the goodness and harmony of creation must be dealt with courageously. When Christ Jesus' disciples had failed to heal a particular malady he said, "This kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting." Mrs. Eddy interprets this as "refraining from admitting the claims of the senses" (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 222). She has made it clear that the requirement is to refuse to admit the testimony of the corporeal senses as to the condition of man or the universe. It is an absolute necessity that God's creation be acknowledged as always at the point of spiritual perfection. The facts of being, gleaned through study and prayer, must be given supremacy over the faulty evidence of material sense; and this is true fasting.

In a parable the Master says, "The kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field." Could it not be said that an understanding of God constitutes that treasure, which every man is able to find by study and prayer, and to protect by fasting from all reliance upon material testimony, creeds, doctrines, opinions, and beliefs? In so far as each one pursues such a course, he is conscious of God's protecting angels, leading and guarding him as his thought rises into the atmosphere of Spirit.

Thus to all men are given the opportunity and privilege to engage in a study of Christian Science, that they may more effectually pray, and at the same time fast from the claims of evil, thereby entering into the joy of working righteously and becoming worthy of the benediction, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant."