As human experience unfolds in individual consciousness, one feels the influence of a variety of thoughts. False education proposes the thought that life is in the body and that the universe is material. At the same time, Christianity teaches that God gave life and created the universe, and that God is Spirit. One who is sincerely striving to be a Christian but who does not have scientific spiritual understanding is dealing with the belief of dualism within his own consciousness. He believes that he is living in a material universe as a material body, subject to material laws, but that God, who is Spirit, is his creator.

Is it any wonder that in this confused state of thought mankind believe that both good and evil are real? At one moment a person may appear to be gentle, loving, content, and at the very next moment, due to a change of circumstances, may appear rude, unloving, and discontented. Searching for lasting peace and contentment, men struggle with this enigma but tend to accept the suggestions of mortality, until they understand scientifically God's thoughts, which are pure and eternal. In the Bible we read, "As the heavens arehigher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts."  ^{Isa. 55:9;}

In the light of Christian Science we discover that man is entirely spiritual and that the mortal appearance is not real. We may at first fear to give up reliance on matter and begin but reluctantly to give up pleasure in matter. However, as the realization of the spiritual facts of being gradually comes to us, we understand that we must accept the truth that real substance is spiritual and give up the fleeting joys of material sense for the lasting joys of Soul.

The carnal, or mortal, mind resists spiritual maturity, and so the human experience appears discordant and sometimes even stagnant. This mortal picture of events begins to change when the spiritual thought-developing process is taken up seriously. The process of spiritualization must be continued for the student of Christian Science to experience consistent harmony. Mrs. Eddy states: "The first feeble flutterings of mortals Christward are infantile and more or less imperfect. The new-born Christian Scientist must mature, and work out his own salvation."  ^{Miscellaneous Writings, p. 85;}

Through earnest study of the Bible and the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy, the infant thought feels the power and presence of God's Word through the physical healings that take place. As thought matures, we begin to understand that to experience continuous, harmonious life and universal, unchangeable love, the undeveloped human consciousness must be enlightened by divine Science. We must gain spiritual understanding and with humility and wisdom utilize it as God wills.

The earnest student who is maturing spiritually does not ask to be catered to nor does he cater to personal sense. He learns how to be tender but firm. He plays no favorites. Out of a fervent sense of spiritual love he can chasten the proud but at the same time affectionately bless and lift the feeble, weak, and fearful.

During the maturing time in human consciousness there is a constant, progressive overturning of thought. In the Bible we read that the Lord God declared, "I will overturn, overturn, overturn, it: and it shall be no more, until he come whose right it is; and I will give it him."  ^{Ezek. 21:27;} I Christian Science we learn that the one "whose right it is" is the Christ, which reveals the infinite spiritual idea of man created in God's image and likeness.

It is inevitable that as Christ Jesus' teachings and works are spiritually understood, accepted, and lived, through the study of Science, self-indulgent so-called mortal mind will be challenged. The spiritually awakened thought will first demand something of itself—and then of others who seek spiritual help—namely, a higher, purer affection, an all-inclusive spiritual love, which becomes unselfed love for God and man. Those who are in earnest will yield to this demand. Paul, a sincere, dedicated follower of Christ Jesus, after his conversion from being a determinded persecutor of Christians said, "Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."  ^{Phil. 3:13, 14;}

As each of us hears, answers, and lives his high calling, he is gradually freed from the material bondage that thwarts spiritual growth. As our spiritual understanding develops, we are able to annul suggestive lies of ignorant, sympathetic, fraudulent, or malicious mental malpractice. Thus the belief of mortality is gradually wiped out of human consciousness, and the immortal idea, God's image and likeness, appears.

Paul wrote, "When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things."  ^{I Cor. 13:11;} Just so, we begin to put off the material sense of existence step by step as our thought becomes more inspired.

The spiritually maturning thought enables us to recognize that human will is not Christian Science. As we turn consistently to the divine Mind and acknowledge the entireness of this Mind, we see the nothingness of many little so-called mortal egos, many mortal minds. The God-fearning, maturning individual willingly gives up mortal belief and self-love to obey God's commands and carry out His will.

Spiritual authority, which rules out both mortal domination and submission, is established in our lives as we wisely utilize our growing spiritual understanding. While governing his own experience through spiritual growth, the wise thinker learns also to allow others to grow from their own standpoint and at their own pace. This spiritual maturity enables one to be ever ready to point out the way when his spiritual guidance is sought, to lead the thoughts of men to God, to heal human fears, and to tenderly rebuke carnality without destructively criticizing condemning persons.

Mrs. Eddy says, "God expresses in man the infinite idea forever developing itself, broadening and rising higher and higher from a boundless basis."  ^{Science and Health, p. 258.} Spiritual maturity shows us that our spiritual destiny is not bounded by human experience, which includes misconceptions of God and man. It enables us to understand that God's idea, man and the universe, is the constant unfoldment of God's image of Himself, and that no mortal or material so-called power can molest, impair, deteriorate, or destroy this divine reflection. The illusion of life and death in matter disappears, and man and universe appear in God's true likeness, spiritual and eternal. Thus Christian Science uplifts human consciousness and enables us to know and express the maturing thought that rises toward eternal perfection.