"TRUTH BY INVERSION"

The woes of sense when reversed may serve to indicate the perfection and harmony which are basic qualities of true being. Every material belief is a lie about some spiritual idea; therefore it follows that inharmony exists merely as a supposed counterfeit of untroubled perfection.

Disease, lack, discord, enmity, and hate, which are the opposites of wholeness, abundance, harmony, love, exist only as vain imaginings. Mary Baker Eddy says in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (pp. 367, 368): "Evil is but the counterpoise of nothingness. The greatest wrong is but a supposititious opposite of the highest right."

From everlasting, God sees what He in His infinite wisdom has created, and He knows that it is very good. Habakkuk says of God (1: 13), "Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity." To the Principle of all real being there is no inharmony, no sickness, accident, or lack. All is eternally beautiful and good.

The trials and difficulties besetting mankind may be easily solved when they are faced with courage flowing from the conviction that the solution is already at hand. The fact that there seems to be a difficulty implies the existence of an eternally true idea. A counterfeit must have an actuality to imitate. In "Miscellaneous Writings" Mrs. Eddy says (pp. 60, 61), "Every material belief hints the existence of spiritual reality; and if mortals are instructed in spiritual things, it will be seen that material belief, in all its manifestations, reversed, will be found the type and representative of verities priceless, eternal, and just at hand."

These priceless verities are included in ever-present Truth, God. Mankind's only need is to know God, Truth, better in order to bring about the solution to its problems, however complex they may appear.

Jesus earned the title of Christ as the result of his unerring vision and demonstration of Truth. He knew God as infinite perfection, harmony, and Love. He was always conscious of man's wholeness as God's perfect expression, forever inseparable from the divine Parent, and never fallen. This was the true knowledge underlying his power to heal.

When Jesus was confronted by the man with a withered hand, he did not sympathize with the infirmity, but with Christly compassion he reversed the mortal picture to behold in its place the presence of Truth and its manifestation. No helpless, withered hand appeared real to Jesus; so it was natural for him to command (Matt. 12:13), "Stretch forth thine hand." The narrative continues, "And he stretched it forth; and it was restored whole, like as the other." Wholeness is truth and must have existed from everlasting. Disease is the counterfeit of truth, the error concerning the fact, and can be destroyed by understanding its nothingness and the true perfection of man.

Mrs. Eddy, through diligent study of the Bible, discerned the fundamental fact of perfection and followed in the steps of the Master, Christ Jesus, in demonstrating the presence of health, abundance, and peace. On page 129 of Science and Health, under the marginal heading "Truth by inversion," she instructs her students in the correct appraisal of any situation. She writes, "If you wish to know the spiritual fact, you can discover it by reversing the material fable, be the fable pro or con,—be it in accord with your preconceptions or utterly contrary to them."

With spiritual honesty the student of Christian Science refuses to accept the evidence of the material senses. In place of the disease which he would heal, he acknowledges the presence of wholeness, right action, and harmonious function. Reversing the appearance of lack, he realizes the presence of abundance. Instead of homelessness and loneliness he sees the beloved child of God eternally embraced in the warmth and comfort of Love, enjoying the satisfying companionship of spiritual ideas. Accidents are seen as impositions upon human credulity, for Principle governs the universe with unerring certainty.

The businessman should acknowledge no excess supply or lack of demand, but should reverse "the material fable" and discern the present operation of the law of equality. The coincidence of demand and supply is a law of Mind which is always available for demonstration in daily affairs.

The belief in unemployment should be reversed by the joyful realization that man is forever about the Father's business, employed here and now as the witness to God's presence and power. Trials of every kind should be seen only as the inverted images of a spiritual reality already at hand, more glorious and satisfying than human thought can compass.

The intricacies and intrigues of personal relationships, from the quarreling of children to disputes among nations, are correctly viewed only as the student reverses the mortal evidence and acknowledges the grand verity of the fellowship of all men as the sons and daughters of one Father, each abundantly satisfied in the consciousness of infinite goodness.

To a nation groaning under the yoke of foreign tyranny in a land where poverty and disease were rampant Christ Jesus sent forth his disciples to preach the gospel of the kingdom of heaven at hand. Disbelieving the evidences of hardship, they declared the presence of God and proved it by healing the sick and liberating the captives of the physical senses. Many times the disciples brought to light the actual fact of perfection and thus destroyed the counterfeit hardship. The Christian disciple of this present time has no less a responsibility to reverse the material fable. In opposition to the testimony of the physical senses he steadfastly adheres to his conviction of the presence of perfect being, thereby casting out error and healing the sick.

Every problem has a solution. The true idea must have existed before a counterfeit or a lie was formulated concerning it. Let us take heart, therefore, and press on with courage to the fulfillment of the perfection which has been prepared from the beginning by God for every one of His beloved children.