It is interesting to note how often Christ Jesus taught the fact that experience is subjective, that is, that the individual experiences the nature and content of his own consciousness. He implied this fact in the beatitude regarding mercy; he taught it in the Lord's Prayer when he spoke of forgiveness. He said that the kingdom of heaven is within; he even spoke of various sins and evil beliefs and said that they were from within consciousness. He also said, "What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them." ^{Mark 11:24}

Christian Science teaches that consciousness is the key to experience and that he who would have harmony in his experience would best keep faithful watch over his thinking. Evil acts are evil thoughts before they are acts, and, likewise, disease conditions are states of consciousness before they are conditions of body. And when one would change the outward conditions, it is essential to change the thought first. Hence the method of prayer that brings the truth to bear upon one's thinking so he may rid himself of the false beliefs, the fears and errors, that are the source of the trouble.

This Science explains that the truth of being rests upon the nature of the one infinite cause, divine Mind, which is perfect, eternal, harmonious, and the nature of man created in God's image and likeness. The perfection of being is the reality of being, and a knowledge of this destroys the fears and the ignorance that underlie all inharmony. Jesus spoke of the truth that makes free, and he came to bring Christ, Truth, to humanity, proving the efficacy of his saving message by healing every type of human ill.

But Jesus' method did not rest upon a psychological manipulation of human thought, nor was it a phase of positive thinking, mere human optimism. It was based upon the power of Truth over error, of Love over hate, and of Life over death. When one needs to conquer fear, he must have more than mere human optimism to do it. Effective prayer rests upon scientific knowledge, spiritual sense, or spiritual understanding of the nature of real being. It requires one's willingness to yield to the divine Mind and to dispute the testimony of the physical senses. It soon becomes clear that matter is not a reality external to thought but the product of false thought and therefore amenable to applied prayer. When one's consciousness is instructed by Truth, one loses his fear of so-called material conditions. Spirit is understood to be substance. Then as the conviction of the presence and power of Truth becomes clearer to him and he begins to understand God's control over man, this state of thought becomes the law of his experience.

Mrs. Eddy says: "I saw how the mind's ideals were evolved and made tangible; and it matters not whether that ideal is a flower or a cancer, if the belief is strong enough to manifest it. Man thinks he is a medium of disease; that when he is sick, disease controls his body to whatever manifestation we see. But the fact remains, in metaphysics, that the mind of the individual only can produce a result upon his body." ^{Christian Healing, p. 6}

It is understandable, then, why the Christian Scientist does not dwell on the symptoms of disease or allow the pictures of sin and disease to abide in his consciousness. Rather does he keep in thought the perfect model, the perfection of God and of man in God's image. His holding to the perfection of being is not mere optimism but a method of scientific demonstration, for he knows that thought governs body. By defending his thought against aggressive material suggestions he proceeds to prove the fact that there is one Mind and that Mind is God, the divine Principle, which governs all real being. In reflecting this Mind he is submitting to the care and control of omnipotent good.

A remarkable instance of subjectivity and expectancy is illustrated in the Biblical healing of the Shunammite's son. The woman was evidently devout in her worship of God. When her son died, she took him up and laid him on the bed of Elisha, the man of God, and went in search of the prophet. When he saw her coming afar off, he told his servant to go and inquire of her if it was well with her, with her husband, and with her son. Even in the face of her experience, she uttered those famous words: "It is well." ^{II Kings 4:26} She sought the help of Elisha, and through her steadfastness and the prophet's prayers the child was revived.

Her refusal to yield to the belief of death was a great factor in the healing of the child. Faith is the forerunner of understanding, and the ability to hold to the spiritual fact until the dawn of understanding has taken place is a potent factor in the prayer that heals. Mrs. Eddy says, "When we come to have more faith in the truth of being than we have in error, more faith in Spirit than in matter, more faith in living than in dying, more faith in God than in man, then no material suppositions can prevent us from healing the sick and destroying error." ^{Science and Health, p. 368}

As men come to understand that they are dealing with states of consciousness rather than conditions of matter, they will put the emphasis where it belongs—on the correction and purification of thought. Then they will see how the Science of Christ brings the truth to human consciousness and affects the whole human situation, mind and body. The perfect man of God's creating will be seen to be the actual selfhood of each individual and God's government to be the substance of health, harmony, and well-being.

William Milford Correll