In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mary Baker Eddy tells us (p. 400), "Eradicate the image of disease from the perturbed thought before it has taken tangible shape in conscious thought, alias the body, and you prevent the development of disease." It is doubtful if any word in the English language expresses so clearly and completely the required action as the word "eradicate." A dictionary defines the word thus: "To pull up by the roots; root out; hence, to destroy thoroughly; extirpate."

At first sight one may wonder why such an emphatic, far-reaching term is necessary for the removal of a mere thought or imagination. Surely, if one has entertained a thought or imagined something, this is entirely disposed of when discarded and replaced by another thought or image.

When we run the mower over our lawns and cut down both grass and weeds, the weeds seem so unobtrusive as to merit no special attention. Yet as growth resumes, the intruders become aggressive; they stand out above the desired growth; they crowd the legitimate occupant of the land and again disfigure the lawn. We are forced to the necessity of giving specific attention to individual weeds, taking them out by drastic means, going down to their deepest roots; in a word, we have to root out, to eradicate, the aggressors.

The writer on one occasion wished to use a wild raspberry patch as a garden. The land was deeply plowed, well harrowed, and a great pile of roots was removed. The next spring the plot was thickly dotted with young raspberry shoots, some of which were found to come from deep roots not reached by the plow, and there were others from odd bits of root not harrowed out. The ground was cleared many times before the old roots were entirely eradicated.

So it is with our thinking. The erroneous thoughts, the false images that have been implanted by traditional theology and medical theories, cannot be disposed of by offhand dismissal. They have to be identified, dug out, destroyed, and replaced by the truth. The penetrating vision of Christ Jesus took account of mental weeds in the parable of the sower. Among other deterrents of fruitage, the master numbered the thorns that choked the good grain, the thoughts that come to the surface and prevent fruitage.

Careful reading of the seventh chapter of the epistle to the Romans reveals that Paul found false thoughts and images becoming apparent and having to be dealt with. He says, among other statements (verse 19), "The evil which I would not, that I do."

In ancient times parchment was scarce and costly, and it was the practice if an inscription had fulfilled its usefulness to erase it and inscribe another message. A parchment so used is known as a palimpsest. Some of these have been found on which the original writing has come to the surface and mingled with the second. The original message had not been thoroughly eradicated; it had sunk so deep that the erasure had not reached its deepest impression. Unless one can differentiate between the first and second message, there is doubt as to the intent of either.

After the writer had taken a sharp walk on a hot and humid evening, he found the cool breeze set up by a swift car ride gratifying. Then there came to the surface the old belief that such conditions caused colds. The thought was merely brushed aside instead of being specifically and firmly dealt with. Before many hours the manifestation of a cold had to be handled and eradicated.

Is there not great need for alertness, for sincere, consistent work that we may recognize and eradicate error? The recognition of error as unreal is a necessary part of its destruction. Mrs. Eddy says (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 210), "Christian Science never healed a patient without proving with mathematical certainty that error, when found out, is two-thirds destroyed, and the remaining third kills itself." When error is not painful, fearful, or grossly inconvenient, there is a temptation to apathy, to put its eradication aside until a more convenient season.

The workings of mortal mind are subtle and persistent. They follow no rule, have no law, no pattern, no system by which they can be recognized, classified, or traced. The price of freedom from error is constant watchfulness. The Master said (Matt. 26:41): "Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation," and (Mark 13:37), "What I say unto you I say unto all, Watch."

In the twenty-fourth chapter of Proverbs, the writer tells of the result of apathy (verses 30–32): "I went by the field of the slothful, ... and, lo, it was all grown over with thorns. ... I looked upon it, and received instruction."

When healing seems unattainable or a problem seems baffling, it would be well to go over the ground carefully and re-examine our thinking in order to see if some deeprooted weed, some long-held belief not entirely eradicated, needs to be destroyed.

The productive garden is the one in which the most desirable flowers and fruit have been planted, encouraged, and faithfully cultivated day by day and from which all intruding growth has been eradicated as soon as apparent.

With regard to our thinking, from the Bible and from Mrs. Eddy's writings we can select the spiritual thoughts that we need or desire, and by daily cultivation—daily study and prayer—we have the means for eradicating the roots of past beliefs and for protecting ourselves from vagrant thoughts, released by mortal mind through pictures or through the printed and spoken word.

We can profitably repeat and remember the Master's words, "What I say unto you I say unto all, Watch."