Many of our troubles involve what we call difficult personalities. Certain undesirable traits seem to persist in an individual and make it difficult to get along with him. And sometimes the annoying traits are our own, and we do not seem to be able to get rid of them.

When giving a Christian Science treatment, a practitioner sometimes finds that the patient's stubbornness or self-righteousness or vanity stands out boldly and would appear to be the cause of the patient's disease. But too often when a healing has taken place, the patient who has acknowledged the questionable trait as an error goes right on being as difficult to get along with after the healing as he was before it. Personality traits seem more persistent than physical ailments.

One's personality, considered from a material standpoint, is often called his soul. It is the ego that in the individual person is conscious of itself and says, "I am." The material personality appears to have developed not only its traits but its entire outlook through the experiences of the material senses. From birth, everything that happens to the material personality has come through seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, or feeling something. And some of the sensitivity to sensory experiences or the reaction to them is attributed to hereditary influences.

Christian Science teaches that man is not material but spiritual. Therefore one does not have a material personality but, rather, expresses spiritual individuality. His identity is not the sum of his sensory experiences but, rather, the reflection of God, Mind, the one and only Soul of the real man. Mrs. Eddy tells us on page 482 of Science and Health, "As used in Christian Science, Soul is properly the synonym of Spirit, or God; but out of Science, soul is identical with sense, with material sensation."

The method of healing in Christian Science is not to attempt to visualize a perfect material personality, but to behold man in Science. Since the belief of material personality appears to have a strong hold on most of us, we need, when seeking a healing, to realize the truth of the individual, both soul and body. Our concept of the individual must be spiritualized through prayer. As we see that God is his Soul and that spiritual reflection is his identity, we find that the belief of material personality and material body and the errors that attend these beliefs yield. The result is healing.

Sometimes when we are having to deal with an individual whose background is unknown to us we may ask, "I wonder if he is a Christian Scientist?" If we wish to ensure the harmony of our dealings with this individual, we should ask ourselves whether we are beholding man in Science. Do we see his Soul as God? or do we think of him as a material personality with traits belonging to a material soul?

There is in reality no such thing as a man outside of Science. Man is made in the image and likeness of God, and God is Truth. The carnal mind, or mortal mind, presents the illusion of man evolved from matter. But if we understand that there is one Soul, we see that the illusion of many souls is a scientific impossibility. And we can destroy the discords which arise from this illusion by beholding man in Science.

This is what Christ Jesus did when a man brought him his son, and the father described the son's condition as having been with him since he was a child saying, "Ofttimes it hath cast him into the fire, and into the waters, to destroy him" (Mark 9:22). Jesus rebuked the error and healed the young man. Mrs. Eddy says on pages 476 and 477 of Science and Health: "Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour saw God's own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick."

It was evident that Jesus knew his own Soul to be not material sense but divine Spirit. He knew himself as the reflection of Spirit. And he understood that the Spirit he reflected is the Soul of man; there is no other soul. To him, therefore, the beliefs of twisted personality, troubled or deceived ego, and sick or uncontrollable body were evil suggestions, lies, which could be refuted with the power of Truth.

Christian Science shows us today that there is but one correct way to identify ourselves and that is after the example given us by the Master. He said. "I and my Father are one" (John 10:30) And he said that God, Spirit, was the power that did his works. He also said that whoever believed him would do the works that he did. As we realize our oneness, or unity, with Soul and recognize every man as Soul's reflection, we can see the falsity of any claim that someone can have a disagreeable personality or a diseased body. And as we grow in this understanding, gaining conviction of the truth of man as he is in Science, we shall learn of our God-given authority to cast out false traits of character, as well as physical disorders, whenever we are called upon to do so.

Carl J. Welz