A Book For Productive Living
ALL of the important and most of the trivial decisions I've made in my adult life have come about as the result of becoming familiar with a book. This book, by Mary Baker Eddy, is Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. It hasn't just played an important role in my life; it has helped me define all my behavior. The concepts in it are of the highest moral standard, and, best of all, plumb the depths of genuine spirituality.
Why do I like living my life this way? Because my life is happier, more substantial, and more productive than I ever thought it could be. Science and Health shows me that experiencing God's powerful goodness is possible, that goodness is actually natural and attainable. There is also great satisfaction--and healing--in learning of God and of my nature as His spiritual creation. I've learned from studying Science and Health that God is divine Spirit and is wholly good. I am God's spiritual idea, reflectin g His goodness. Knowing this gives me tremendous spiritual strength and certainty when things get tough.
Not long ago I woke in the middle of the night with symptoms of apparent food poisoning. At first I was afraid, and I thought ``Oh no, not this. I'll probably be wretched for the next few days." But then I got up and started reading my copy of Science and Health. I prayed with all my heart. As I was reading I began to reason about God's law this way: If His law is truly all-powerful, as it says here in Science and Health, then it must be the only law I need to surrender to. Divine law is always good, and
therefore it protects God's creation--including me. All of a sudden I felt a spiritual, powerful confidence in God's goodness just well up in me. I knew I didn't have to go through a long process to get better--I was healed. I went back to bed, slept normally, and that was the end of the difficulty.
How did this book come to be? Through Mrs. Eddy's study of the Bible, her life experience, and most of all through what God revealed to her. The Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science points out in another of her books The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany: ``My first writings on Christian Science began with notes on the Scriptures. I consulted no other authors and read no other book but the Bible for about three years." The laws of spiritual goodness made plain in the Bible and Scie nce and Health aren't confined to members of any one religious denomination. They apply to everyone, everywhere. In my own experience, I really felt encouraged to challenge limitations, destructive habits of thinking, and illness only after I started to study Science and Health seriously.
As I began to examine what the book says, I learned that Mrs. Eddy followed Christ Jesus and that I should make Jesus my example, too. Mrs. Eddy urges in Science and Health, ``Be thankful that Jesus, who was the true demonstrator of Science, did these things, and left his example for us." Jesus encouraged people to heal through God's power. He said to his followers, ``Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.
To a degree, my life illustrates how the words of the Bible and Science and Health can be utterly transforming. I am finding healing, regeneration, and peace. But best of all, I am learning more and more of the wonderful spirituality that is natural to me as God's child. You can too. Read and study Science and Health--you'll find yourself in it.
