‘Two cardinal points’
Colleen Douglass | from The Christian Science Journal
Years ago in the advertising/marketing business, when the agencies I worked for pitched new accounts, we were charged with discovering the points of difference between our potential client’s product and similar ones. Our advertising and marketing plans would highlight those differences, so customers could see why the product we proposed was a better choice. This approach is useful to the study and practice of Christian Science. As with any science, Christian Science must be practiced in accord with its Principle and rules, so to understand these helps one cut to the chase.
Today with a broad array of what appear to be “alternatives,” Christian Science often gets confused or combined with other religions, ideologies, philosophies, and alternative medicines. But when one does mix this Science with other beliefs, the result is no longer effective. While certain aspects of Christian Science might seem or actually be similar to others, it actually departs from various schools of thought in distinct ways.
Mary Baker Eddy characterized two elements as essential to the practice of Christian Science.
A hundred and forty years ago, Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered Christian Science, combed through the Bible, principally the New Testament, to better understand the life and works of Christ Jesus and the early prophets. From what she gleaned, she characterized two elements as essential to the effective practice of Christian Science. In Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, she observed that Jesus “best understood the nothingness of material life and intelligence and the mighty actuality of all-inclusive God, good. These were the two cardinal points of Mind-healing, or Christian Science, which armed him with Love” (Science and Health, p. 52).
By reading Science and Health with these two points in mind, one realizes that Mrs. Eddy repeats them over and over in different language throughout the text. For example, her “scientific statement of being” elaborates on them: “There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all. Spirit is immortal Truth; matter is mortal error. Spirit is the real and eternal; matter is the unreal and temporal. Spirit is God, and man is His image and likeness. Therefore man is not material; he is spiritual” (Science and Health, p. 468).
What does it mean to worship God as Spirit?
Mrs. Eddy gains authority for these two points from the words of Jesus who told his followers that “the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:23, 24). What does it mean to worship God as Spirit? For students of Christian Science, it requires an increasing understanding that Spirit is the only substance, presence, power, and law that exists. But it also requires that one drop the worship of anything unlike, or that denies, Spirit. Since matter fits squarely into that category, in order to effectively practice Christian Science, we must be willing to drop reliance on matter in all of its forms. Here’s where Christian Science departs from virtually all other schools of thought.
A simple way to state it is that either God, Spirit, is all—or He isn’t. We can’t imagine that God is All in certain circumstances, but not in others. To acknowledge “the mighty actuality of all-inclusive God, good” as divine Spirit requires the corresponding acknowledgment of “the nothingness of material life and intelligence.”
Better understanding and practicing these central ideas proves to be incredibly liberating on all fronts. This understanding leads us to realize that because God is the only cause, all life, love, health, abundance, and home emanate from Him—a bountiful reservoir. And we’re able to rise above matter’s constant mantra of lack, lack, lack—lack of time, money, health, companionship, opportunity, love, and joy. Firmly grasping these truths prompts us to challenge the veracity of material touch, taste, smell, sound, and sight—those false testimonies that wage a battle against our eternal, spiritual, well-being. And we can thereby firmly clarify our approach to any circumstance we might confront.
No matter how often we return to these two cardinal points in our study and practice of Christian Science, they never run dry of inspiration. Rather, they continue to blossom in our hearts and minds as we find more ways to apply them, day by day.
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