The peculiar use of certain words in the Christian Science vocabulary seems strange at times to unaccustomed ears. To the sensitive, critical ear it may come as a somewhat startling shock, while to the more moderate it may simply suggest a questionable use of terms. In any case it is likely to have the beneficial effect of arousing a spirit of inquiry which, even if mixed with doubt, is better than a mental torpor or false peace.

One such rather unusual expression frequently made use of in the testimonials given in our periodicals, and in the experience meetings, is the term "claim" or "false claim," when reference is being made to physical ailments.

One object in using such a term is to dispossess the thought of sickness of some of its awful seeming reality and terrorizing power. Some counteraction is certainly needed along this line, for as we glance over the columns of the newspapers, or listen to the general trend of conversation around us every day, we cannot fail to notice how much attention is given to diseases and ills of different sorts. These are discovered, announced, and discussed in all their newest forms until the very atmosphere seems laden with colds, contagion, and catastrophes, and every one is taught to expect a periodical spell of sickness in some form or other. No wonder that Christian Science should cause a commotion, when it steps forth to combat all these evil influences and tendencies. What! it is asked, do you mean to tell me that I am being deceived by a mirage, or ghostly fancy in thinking that the things I actually see, hear, and feel are real and to be feared?

Let us see on what ground Christian Science questions the actuality of those things which men consider so real and terrible. It starts with the inquiry, Are these evil discordant conditions that we see around us normal and real, or abnormal and unreal? After a course of close reasoning it decides that they are the latter, and bases this conclusion on the Bible record that God made all that was made, and that "God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good."

If the natural, normal, and real state of all things is good and harmonious, then the endeavor to establish evil, discord, and suffering as realities is an error, a mistake, a false claim. If, however, when this claim presents itself, we admit it as valid, and keep constantly thinking and talking about it, we may make it seem very real to us, and become subject thereto. If, on the contrary, we resist the claim, knowing that the only proper and normal condition of existence is righteousness, health, and peace; and that these are in accord with the divine and only law; then we may grasp a sense of dominion that will deliver us from evil and enable us to declare our divine rights, and thus enter into our rightful inheritance.

To illustrate: Let us suppose that we have found ourselves cast out in the world, destitute of means or resources. In our distress a kind friend has come to us and told us that we need not be troubled any longer because of want, for we are heirs to a comfortable home and rich estate, so that we need want for nothing.

Greatly relieved by such intelligence, we at once take possession of our home, procure an abstract of the title, and feel grateful to our friend for the interest shown. After a time a person walks into our pleasant abode and claims to have a right there, that we have been misinformed, and he has come to possession. In distress we seek our friend, who tells us that the person's claim is false, so that we need have no fear. We return and assert our rights, and the claimant leaves. He soon returns, however, with quite an array of arguments. We are not so much afraid since we believe that his claim is false, but we turn to our friend again and are told to examine our title thoroughly for ourselves. This we do by studying the abstract, and can now understand that we, and we alone, have the right to occupy our home without fear of molestation, and that this claim, being false, is no claim at all. We feel confident and strong, for we are sustained by law. Since there is but one law governing the case, the false claim is without law, and has nothing to support it. The only ground it ever had to even seem real was our fear that it might be so. When that is removed by our better understanding, the claimant and the claim, which are really one, disappear.

What is this false claimant, or claim, but mortal belief in its various forms of discord which would rob us of our true home, our harmonious relation to God and the universe? In the Science of Life and revelation of Truth, we find a perfect title to our inheritance which is "incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away." A very complete abstract we have in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," by a careful study of which we can attain such familiarity with our true that we can successfully dispute any false claim that presents itself.

The word "belief" is also used by Christian Scientists in much the same sense. If I believed that some one else had a better right to my home than I, and acted on that belief, it would be the same to all intents and purposes as if he had. But if, by a better understanding, my erroneous belief is corrected, then the power of the claim is destroyed. In this sense do we find these words, claim and belief, used.

May there not be a possibility, however, of a too frequent use of such phraseology, resulting, it may be, in a mere change of terms, while the mental concept remains only slightly changed, if changed at all. "That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." It is well to choose wisely our forms of speech, but we need to extend our watchfulness further than our words. As was tersely remarked in one of our Wednesday evening meetings, "It is better to say sick and think belief, than to say belief, and think sick." To go to an excess in the use of peculiar idioms and phrases of speech may seem to others to border so closely on the ridiculous as to detract from the force of our remarks. In our zeal to counteract evil influences of false laws, bad customs, and wrong methods of thinking and talking, we ourselves need to guard against manners of expression that would be distasteful or repugnant to people of good intelligence. "A wholesome tongue is a tree of life." "Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man."