Article August 22, 1914 Issue

Belief

NINA V. WRIGHT

To many of those taking their first steps of serious thought concerning the practical reason for truths taught in Christian Science, the matter of supply, in its various manifestations of health, wealth, or contentment, is sometimes apt to be confusing. The beginner in Christian Science is very often found to be badly entangled, and at first perhaps unable to distinguish definitely between the seeming conditions of harmony in the mortal man and the absolute facts of harmony in the spiritual man.

To the seeker's beclouded thought at this stage, whatever conditions appear to his vision as those of health, of wealth, or of optimism, he promptly accepts as natural and spiritual, while he would be very unwilling to admit as belonging to the real man, the evidence of sickness, poverty, or the irritable, selfish characteristics of disposition. He very readily grasps that the conditions which appeal to him as inharmonious cannot coincide with his idea of man in God's image and likeness; but he does not so readily comprehend that the manifestation of physical health, material riches, or other things, which are only the result of mortal beliefs, must be equally untrue, and must therefore, by reason of their unsubstantial foundation, be detected and exchanged for the absolute knowledge of that which constitutes reality. It must finally be understood that a belief of health in matter, or of wealth in materiality, is just as erroneous, just as devoid of reality, as is a belief of sickness or of poverty.

To illustrate further may be helpful. Let us imagine that this beginner in Christian Science, who has become confused in this matter of differentiating between the seeming of material health and the actuality of spiritual health, has a friend. This friend manifests a perfectly healthy body; financially he is well established and is prospering daily; his natural disposition is one of contentment and optimism. He is what is generally termed a good man, goes to church on Sunday, is kind, never runs in debt, and is charitably disposed, though knowing nothing whatever as yet of the Christian Science way of thinking.

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