When I was a boy, I loved to search through the pebbles along stream banks, gravel pits, and old roadbeds. Eventually I accumulated a sizable collection of agates and fossils. I remember one fossil that seemed quite a puzzle. I just couldn't figure out exactly what it was. Could it have been the backbone of a prehistoric fish or perhaps the stalk of a sea lily deposited on the ocean floor millions of years ago? The little I knew of paleontology as a child just wasn't sufficient to solve the mystery.

Certainly there are more profound mysteries than a boy's simple attempt to identify a fossil. In fact, much of human existence remains an enigma to the human mind. But the way to solve any mystery, large or small, is fundamentally the same—it's through gaining a better understanding of the questions and the facts involved.

When I became a student of Christian Science, I learned, however, that if one is to begin to solve the great mysteries of being, the understanding needed above all else is spiritual understanding. In the Bible the book of Proverbs proclaims, "Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding." ^{Prov. 4:7.}

Yet a skeptic might think that such a thing as spiritual understanding is perhaps of little practical value. And if this is what Christian Science offers, one might ask, how is it really different from what traditional religious philosophies have offered people down through the ages?

It could certainly be argued that religion is one area of mankind's experience that has often been shrouded in mysticism, dogma, and unexplained visions of supernatural forces. But Christian Science teaches that it is fundamentally ignorance, a limited material sense of reality, that has resulted in humanity's apparent inability to resolve the mysteries of life satisfactorily. Religion that remains in the realm of unexplainable phenomena and dogmatic beliefs can never fully satisfy people's real hunger—the longing to actually know God, to feel His presence unmistakably, to understand His will for man.

This is the hope and promise Christian Science is bringing to the world today—the promise of knowing God, of finding salvation, freedom, and real purpose to life. In full accord with the teachings and practice of the Saviour, Christ Jesus, the Science of Christ is uplifting burdened hearts and showing people the joyful dominion that comes through the prayer of spiritual understanding and through living that prayer.

The ministry of Christ Jesus actually demonstrated centuries ago that mystery has no part in the practice of true religion. One of the most remarkable things about Christ Jesus' lifework and the genuine Christianity of his disciples was the immediate practicality it evidenced for people's lives. Jesus' inspired understanding of God's power brought healing and regeneration to countless individuals.

The Saviour saw through the enigmatic nature of mortal existence and proved man to be the perfect reflection, the image and likeness, of God. His recognition of man's unbroken relationship to the Father transformed the lives of those whose hearts he touched. And today the spiritual understanding gained through the study of Christian Science is again healing sickness and saving lives from sin.

As we pray and grow in grace, more of the true nature of God as infinite Spirit, divine Mind, is revealed to our spiritual sense. As we see that we are actually His expression—pure, complete, and free—the reality of man's spiritual existence and the power of God to heal will no longer seem supernatural or miraculous. In the textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy makes this observation about Christian Science: "It lifts the veil of mystery from Soul and body. It shows the scientific relation of man to God, disentangles the interlaced ambiguities of being, and sets free the imprisoned thought." Then the textbook follows with a statement of the wholly unmysterious nature of reality: "In divine Science, the universe, including man, is spiritual, harmonious, and eternal." ^{Science and Health, p. 114.}

Life no longer needs to seem an enigma when we commit ourselves to Christ, Truth. We really can discover our individual purpose as God's beloved child. The Christian Science textbook declares: "Truth is revealed. It needs only to be practised." ^{Ibid., p. 174.} As we gain in humility, unselfed love, and pure motives, we grow in spiritual understanding, and the real meaning of life shines through—bringing higher joy, peace, and blessings to us and to our world. Our lives as Christian disciples—attesting to Truth and practicing it—can be the proof that there actually are no mysteries in divine Science.

WILLIAM E. MOODY