Proportionately as one understands the Science of man, he puts off false mortal beliefs about him. As one discerns man in the image and likeness of God, wholly spiritual, he ceases to believe that he is corporeal. Christian Science destroys false beliefs concerning man, and teaches men to demonstrate the allness—the presence and the power—of God.

Christian Science healing repudiates the very existence of false material claims. The student refuses to acknowledge that there can be any truth in the testimony of material sense. He does not dwell upon such testimony or rehearse it at length. If he searches for erroneous beliefs at all, he does so only to dissolve them into their native nothingness. The essential objective in Christian Science is the discernment and demonstration of "the spiritual idea unenvironed by materiality," to quote Mrs. Eddy's words on page 122 of "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany."

Sin, disease, death are material claims about man, and exist only as belief. The man that God created reflects Him in all His perfect qualities. Striving to grasp the spiritual idea, we deny the unreal and declare the truth. Thus Christ Jesus is recorded as saying, "Let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay."

Since God, Spirit, Mind, made everything there is, and in His own likeness, it is clear that He would know nothing unlike Himself to deny. The all-knowing perceives His own expression or creation, and knows that all that is real is good. The human mind, on the contrary, believes to be real that which is no part of God's creation, and which, in truth, does not exist. Therefore, those beliefs are denied as thought recognizes God and His creation as all there is, and subordinates the human mind to the one divine Mind, "which was also in Christ Jesus."

The Bible shows how Jesus, during his life of demonstration, repudiated claims of error. He denominated their source as "the devil, ... a murderer from the beginning," which "abode not in the truth." "The scientific statement of being" (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, p. 468), with its denials of the unreal and affirmations of the real, is of vital importance to every student of Christian Science. The truths set forth in that statement are sufficient to heal every type of human difficulty. Mrs. Eddy has written (ibid., p. p.242), "Denial of the claims of matter is a great step towards the joys of Spirit, towards human freedom and the final triumph over the body."

When the student prayerfully denies material claims, in Christian Science healing, good displaces that which is thus resolved into nothingness, and health, goodness, wholeness, success, supply, and other attributes of Spirit, are proved to be already present. Denial removes the error, and affirmation of the truth lifts the receptive consciousness to discern the way of healing which lies immediately before us. The lie is denied solely in reference to God, Spirit, Love. As if brushing away a mist, denial of error prepares affirmative thought to let Truth shine with holy brilliancy. It puts off the old man as the inspired affirmation of Truth puts on the new, the spiritual idea.

Christian Science liberates thought and opens before the student the door to infinite spiritual goodness. It reveals the truth about real spiritual selfhood, which is wholly apart from counterfeit material existence. The denial of error serves as a bar against discordant beliefs which seek entry into one's thinking, and disperses them if they have been allowed to enter. False beliefs are repudiated as one perceives that God has made man in His image, spiritual and perfect.

A student of Christian Science was suddenly afflicted with an apparently serious physical difficulty which he refused to regard as other than a false belief. He denied its reality and rejoiced in the perfection of God's man. He countered every suggestion of sickness with the declaration that in his true selfhood he was the perfect child of God. He poured into his thinking from the Christian Science textbook all that he could find about the qualities of perfect spiritual man. He rejoiced in God's goodness, sang hymns from the Christian Science Hymnal, and freely acknowledged every evidence of improvement which he felt, together with the influx of understanding. The result was that he experienced a quick healing, carrying with it spiritual inspiration, freedom, and happiness, which thereafter sustained him as he faced human obstacles in everyday experience.

Christian Science directs thought to the comforting and healing truth about every condition. The Bible teaches the unceasing love of God, the Father, for all His children. Looking beyond human sense, we see man, including every individual idea of God, as one with God, and as having God-given dominion. Thus one's consciousness is humbled to receive the healing Christ, and infinite fields of reality—new, happy, and beautiful—become apparent. As Christ, Truth, unfolds to the human consciousness, he who loves God will strive to walk increasingly in the healing way, so that he will grow in the demonstration of perfect man. Paul said, "Like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life." In Christian Science we strive, in prayer, to discern the real man, apart from matter, and to unite thought so closely to God that we come to witness our true selfhood in that consciousness which reflects God, the one divine Mind, which is Spirit, Truth, and Love.

Our Leader says in "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" (p. 210): "Beloved Christian Scientists, keep your minds so filled with Truth and Love, that sin, disease, and death cannot enter them. It is plain that nothing can be added to the mind already full. There is no door through which evil can enter, and no space for evil to fill in a mind filled with goodness. Good thoughts are an impervious armor; clad therewith you are completely shielded from the attacks of error of every sort."