SCIENTIFIC TRANSLATION - The Mary Baker Eddy Science Institute

In the myths and folklore of mankind, it appears that certain basicthemes are found in the traditions of all cultures. While the detailsvary, the elements of the stories remain constant. One such tale isthat of the king's son stolen in infancy from his royal home andbrought up by his captors in a far country. Somehow, following hisinsistent intuition and perhaps aided miraculously by unexpectedhelpers, he finds his way back to his father's house. On the way he issubjected to certain disciplines, and is required to perform a numberof labours before he is eventually restored to his original estate. Thisstory is so widespread that one may presume it to be a universallyrecognized allegory of the human condition.Man is by birth and nature a spiritual being, yet he appears to havebeen kidnapped by mortal conception and imprisoned in a finite,corporeal personality. Nevertheless he retains a faint recollection ofhis divine origin and immortal nature, and searches consciously orunconsciously for that golden thread that will lead him back home. Hecomes full circle partly by his own acts and fidelity but primarilybecause the unbroken life-link speaks in him as an unfailing guide, aself-directing power of good. Nothing can silence the right intuitionwhich guides him safely home.In this allegory can be discerned two main elements: the unchangingfact of man's true origin, which remains with him throughout like a lawof being; and the way back to it, through aided effort. His divine statusis constantly echoing in his consciousness, and in response he isprogressively translated back into reality.If for our purpose we suppose Christian Science to be that goldenthread, it does indeed lead him back home, but with a difference. Itteaches him that he never actually lost his divinity; that his egocentricmortal personality is a misconception; that his captors are impostors;that a world remote from heaven is a misapprehension, for whenseen aright his world is heaven experienced. He does not have to goanywhere in space or in time. He returns to his home not throughdying, but through spiritual understanding.Certainly something dies, but it is not man. What perishes is thefinite conception, the material beliefs, the false consciousness whichhe believed kidnapped him in the first place. By degrees he awakens,19