The human mind appears to be a strange concoction of good and evil, of spiritual and material qualities. The ratio of right to wrong varies with the individual, but regardless of the quality of the mix there is a sure and certain way to improve it. So long as a vestige of dualism seems to exist there is mental housecleaning to be done, and the study of Christian Science can show us how. It can cleanse human thought of its disease-producing residue and thus bring out harmony.

Material beliefs and character faults begin to recede as one learns to claim his unity with God and recognize Him to be the one and only Ego, the actual Mind of man here and now. We soon discover that the unaided human mind hasn't the spiritual power to correct and purify itself. It must consciously and willingly surrender to the All-Mind as the divine Principle of real thought and action. In the degree that this is done, thought and conduct are uplifted, spiritual ignorance disappears, and human character is renovated.

In several instances in her writings Mrs. Eddy implies a distinct difference between the unregenerate mortal, or carnal, mind, and the human consciousness which seems to be a mixture of both righteous and unrighteous tendencies, and therefore represents an intermediate mental stage in mankind's march from matter to Spirit.

At this level of growth we are partially awake to the moral and spiritual demands that Christian Science makes upon us, but still much needs to be done before we arrive at a full understanding of man's pure spiritual identity conceived by and embraced in Mind, or divine Love. Mrs. Eddy writes, "Time may commence, but it cannot complete, the new birth: eternity does this; for progress is the law of infinity." Further on she continues, "What a faith-lighted thought is this! that mortals can lay off the 'old man,' until man is found to be the image of the infinite good that we name God, and the fulness of the stature of man in Christ appears." ^{Miscellaneous Writings, p. 15;}

Christ Jesus used the parable of the tares and wheat to illustrate how the apparent mixture of good and evil in human thought seemed to originate. In this parable the servants of the householder said to him, "Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares?" ^{Matt. 13:27;} He replied, "An enemy hath done this." Later the Master told his disciples that the enemy represented the devil, which, according to Christian Science, means a belief in an evil mind, resident in matter and separate from God, the one real Mind.

This Science teaches that all evil originates in a false sense of mind, and human consciousness needs to purge itself of this belief if it is to advance above material limitations into the health and harmony of real consciousness. Mrs. Eddy tells us, "When the human mind is advancing above itself towards the Divine, it is subjugating the body, subduing matter, taking steps outward and upwards." ^{Message to The Mother Church for 1902, p. 10;}

The healing of disease is the direct result of climbing to a higher, clearer sense of real being. We learn in Christian Science that the human body is but the subjective image by which the human mind expresses itself. The higher its content of good and the lower its percentage of evil, the better transparency it becomes for the healing light of divine Love, and the more quickly the mental image called body responds to this light.

In other words, the goal of an earnest student of Christian Science is so to thin out and destroy the grosser carnal elements in human consciousness that he more and more closely approximates the Mind of Christ, the divine consciousness that empowered Jesus in his healing ministry. In this way he finally will reach the ultimate —the complete disappearance of the human mind and its limitations in a full understanding that divine Mind is All-in-all.

Prior to his spectacular conversion on the road to Damascus, Paul was governed by the darker elements of human thought. But when he awoke to Christ, Truth, he began at once to weight the balance on the side of spiritual thinking and doing. He said, "Unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ," ^{Eph. 4:7;} and by utilizing this gift to the full he healed the sick, even restoring one who appeared to have died, and became the great missionary of his time.

While on the island of Patmos, John's spiritual inspiration so uplifted and purified his consciousness that he was able to see "a new heaven and a new earth." ^{Rev. 21:1;} Speaking of this, Mrs. Eddy writes, "This testimony of Holy Writ sustains the fact in Science, that the heavens and earth to one human consciousness, that consciousness which God bestows, are spiritual, while to another, the unillumined human mind, the vision is material." ^{Science and Health, p. 573.}

In reality, God, infinite Soul, is forever bestowing spiritual perception on all His children, or divine ideas. But at this stage in our human experience we need to reach out earnestly and persistently for this priceless gift if we would enjoy its benefits. In the degree that we do, the "consciousness which God bestows" will be ours.

Alan A. Aylwin