Do you talk to yourself? You may not realize it, but you do. You are constantly carrying on a mental conversation, consciously or unconsciously. This can have a very marked effect on your health and happiness.

The question is, What are you telling yourself? Are you declaring and affirming your perfect status as one of the sons and daughters of God, Spirit, or are you saying that you are a mortal, subject to sickness, lack, weariness, or discouragement?

Mrs. Eddy writes, "If we observe our mental processes, we shall find that we are perpetually arguing with ourselves; yet each mortal is not two personalities, but one." ^{Unity of Good, p. 21;} It would seem at times that conflicting voices are striving to be heard in consciousness, but in reality there is only one worthy of a hearing. This voice, the utterance of spiritual sense, silences the claims of material sensation, the belief of life, substance, or mind in matter.

The Bible tells us, "A double minded man is unstable in all his ways." ^{James 1:8;} Christian Science rejects the belief that there are two states of mind comprising a dual personality subject to alternating states of depression or cheerfulness, health or sickness. Man in Science is the reflection of the one omnipotent Mind, which knows only its own unchanging perfection and harmony. Thus man cannot be double-minded; he is receptive only to the impartations of the one, all-harmonious Mind, God.

Christ Jesus wasn't influenced by the insidious suggestions of the carnal mind. During his testing time in the wilderness, the subtle taunts of the devil, or evil, found no response in his pure consciousness. He was constantly aware of his spiritual selfhood as the Christ-idea; he stressed his oneness with his Father, God, as the source of his every thought and act. Thus he was divinely empowered to refute the testimony of the physical senses as false and baseless.

Like our Way-shower, we too can refuse to heed the satanic challenge, "Cast thyself down." ^Matt.4:6; Mortal belief is of itself powerless to influence us without our consent and can only whisper its crafty lies to the unwary. Any information coming from supposititious mortal mind is deceptive and illusory, without origin or foundation in fact. Each subtle falsity that presents itself in the guise of sin or sickness should be summarily dismissed as "a liar, and the father of it." ^{John 8:44;}

We should not allow our thought to be dictated to. We should do the dictating. In any situation we can at once decide to replace fear with confidence, assert our God-given authority over the beliefs of pain or sickness, and contradict the falsities of material sense with the truths of spiritual sense.

We argue on the wrong side when we tell ourselves we are weary, unhappy, or unfortunate. Instead we should be telling ourselves we are the everlasting expressions of the all-harmonious Being, God. We should be affirming our indestructible perfection as the reflection of eternal Mind, denying and rejecting the belief that we are material, subject to discord, fear, or pain. We are each of us responsible for our own thoughts, which determine our human experience and welfare.

To those burdened with sadness or despair Mrs. Eddy's words show the way of comfort: "If you wish to be happy, argue with yourself on the side of happiness; take the side you wish to carry, and be careful not to talk on both sides, or to argue stronger for sorrow than for joy. You are the attorney for the case, and will win or lose according to your plea." ^{Christian Healing, p.10;}

Such argument has no relation to autosuggestion or human willpower but is based on reasoning spiritually from a spiritual standpoint, whereby we realize that joy, dominion, and happiness are qualities of Soul, God, forever inherent in man, His image. Because of our unity with the divine Principle of harmony, we reflect and express lasting satisfaction, spontaneity, and joy. Thought thus divinely and intelligently directed is treatment in Christian Science. It is the prayer of affirmation by which we become more aware of our true identity as the likeness of God and of the divine power and authority with which we are endowed to demonstrate this fact.

If the material senses insist that you are suffering from a physical ailment, you do not have to believe this. You can at once begin to argue on the side of invincible Truth. In dealing with sickness, it is encouraging to realize that we do not have to strive and struggle with a power—even a seeming power—operating in opposition to the divine law of harmony. The unreality of disease is exposed in the presence of Truth, Life, and Love. The understanding of God's presence nullifies error's claims with the assurance that they have no foundation or cause apart from what mortal mind ascribes to them.

Mrs. Eddy explains how people are victimized by their own enslaving beliefs: "The sick unconsciously argue for suffering, instead of against it. They admit its reality, whereas they should deny it. They should plead in opposition to the testimony of the deceitful senses, and maintain man's immortality and eternal likeness to God." ^{Science and Health, pp. 394-395.}

Denying the validity of disease beliefs may require vehement insistence on our part. But by flooding our consciousness with affirmations of man's perfection as God's own likeness, we silence "the testimony of the deceitful senses," and harmony prevails.

Although the word "argue" usually implies contention between two opposing sides, one dictionary derivation of the word is "to make clear." And that is just what spiritually scientific argument based on Christian Science does; it makes clear to human comprehension the omnipotence and omnipresence of God, good, and the consequent impotence of any claim to the contrary.

Working and praying from this standpoint, we find that our arguments rise from the level of mere human reasoning and conflicting mortal opinions; they become positive, effective declarations of spiritual verities, carrying divine authority and power. As the understanding of God as the only Mind and of man as His reflection expands, we attain that state of single-mindedness in which we are aware of the constant flow of positive spiritual ideas, regenerating and purifying consciousness. Then we know how to base our arguments on the right and only side.