Often one hears someone give this explanation of a discordant situation: "Oh, it isn't anything that just happened. It's been building up all day" or "... all year" or "... all my life." Unless such a remark is mentally challenged, the listener may agree and accept a feeling of despondency or hopelessness.

Reason directs that we examine the validity of any statement or idea or situation. The question is always, "Is it true, or isn't it?" A lie never becomes true because we believe it for a while; but we labor under the mistaken belief as though it were true, until the falsity is fully recognized. Therefore it is important that we analyze all concepts for their trueness; doing this consistently can free us from discords.

Christ Jesus left this message: "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32). This truth which frees from all that is untrue is stated in the Bible, in the first chapter of Genesis. Here is set forth the absolute goodness of God's universe, including man. These spiritual facts form the basis for the healing work done by our Saviour and by Christian Science.

This Science teaches that since God made all and declared it good, a discordant situation, whether it is called evil, error, disease, or frustration, is illusive, a false concept, hence actually nonexistent. It is clear that a condition that is nonexistent can't grow, change, or become anything. Fear of a lie about God's creation has to be cast out. One does this by understanding that man is always harmonious in spite of what material sense presents. To discredit the material picture takes away fear's argument, and man is seen to be ever within God's dear love, which envelops, protects, and guides him.

In solving problems in mathematics, we prove that we understand the method by arriving at the correct answer in our work. Similarly, we need constantly to review our ideas on the subject of God and His creation to see whether or not our thinking is in accord with the spiritual facts of being, if we wish to demonstrate the harmony of being and see it evidenced in human experience. On page 289 of Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy says, "The spiritual fact and the material belief of things are contradictions; but the spiritual is true, and therefore the material must be untrue."

If the material view includes pain, discord, or inharmony of any kind, Christian Science teaches mankind to examine their thinking about it. Starting from the basic fact which Christ Jesus taught and demonstrated that man is perfect and immortal here and now, we cannot regard anything else as true. To do so would necessitate our denying God as the only creator. We would be questioning the allness of Deity.

It is impossible to hold in thought two opposite concepts at the same time. We choose which we shall believe. For example, we can't think of ourselves as confused and frustrated and expect the condition to build up to something even worse and at the same moment accept the truths of Christianity.

One of the first statements Jesus made in his ministry was, "The kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matt. 4:17). He showed by his healings that harmony reigns in God's creation, all the time. Forever, here and now, we are governed by God's law of harmony. Our Master taught that understanding our heavenly Father's love toward us furnishes the confidence which dispels the dark visions that sometimes cloud our view. He outlined the way for us, the way for our thinking.

Mrs. Eddy points out on page 167 of Science and Health, "Our proportionate admission of the claims of good or of evil determines the harmony of our existence,—our health, our longevity, and our Christianity."

When tempted to admit into consciousness the claims of evil which might appear as a sense of growing discord, we should realize immediately the unreal nature of all error, evil, or pain and know that it isn't true because it doesn't originate with God, the Maker of all things. This will prevent error from being real to us or seeming to continue to be a fearful or troublesome situation.

Evil is never true. It wasn't true at the first moment it seemed to exist. And it has no existence or continuity because it has no creator. Therefore discord can't build up; discord can't do anything but disappear when it is subjected to the light of the understanding of God's great love and protecting power toward us.

"The history of Christianity furnishes sublime proofs of the supporting influence and protecting power bestowed on manby his heavenly Father, omnipotent Mind, who gives man faith and understanding whereby to defend himself, not only from temptation, but from bodily suffering" (Science and Health, p. 387). Thus our Leader points out the importance of understanding God if we wish to learn the nothingness of evil.