We are all capable of distinguishing between good or evil thoughts, healthy or sick ones. We can allow or refuse any of these entrance into our thinking and thereby govern our bodies accordingly. It is at the door of our thought that discordant pictures need to be stopped and the evidence of the material senses reversed.

Mortal mind, or the belief of life in matter, makes men think that flesh is substance, and this seems convincing because the physical senses tell us so. But the Apostle Paul wrote, "The carnal mind is enmity against God." ^{Rom. 8:7;} He urged men to realize their true being in Christ and taught them how to experience it. "Ye are not in the flesh," he said, "but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you." ^{v. 9;} Through Christian Science we learn of the substantiality of Spirit and the insubstantiality of matter. Mrs. Eddy writes in Science and Health: "Spirit is the only substance, the invisible and indivisible infinite God. Things spiritual and eternal are substantial. Things material and temporal are insubstantial." ^{Science and Health, p. 335;}

When one is faced with pain, it is not enough merely to be intellectually or theoretically receptive to the truth that man is not material but is spiritual. Overcoming pain takes more than the mere repetition of statements of truth in Christian Science. One needs a deep understanding of these divinely inspired words, a commitment to them, a willingness to live in accord with them. One must be willing to pray scientifically and thoroughly, to deny matter any reality or power, any substance or sensation. He must have the courage to refuse to be deceived into thinking of himself as material.

The man God made—perfect, harmonious, and spiritual—is present right where the illusion appears to be. As one applies the Science of true being to the situation at hand, his thinking adjusts so that he gets a proper perspective on what he is.

Man's link to God's law is as unbroken as his link to God, and when this law is clearly understood, discord in one's thought and life is replaced by harmony.

Once, when I had just completed a course of Christian Science study, at the end of the last day as I turned out my light in the hotel room where I was staying I felt a severe pain at the base of my spine. My first thought was of the inconvenience of such a thing at the particular time and place. As the pain increased in intensity and area, my next thought was to telephone my husband to enlist his prayerful support.

Then came the practical thought: "I have just learned more than I have ever known about the application of Christian Science. Try it out! Put this knowledge to work." At once, turning thought away from the concept that I was confined in a material body, I dealt with the problem strictly as an encroachment on my thought. The suggestion seemed very aggressive and tenacious, but I insisted that mortal mind could not overpower the work of divine Love. The mental resistance seemed to be as unyielding as a rod of iron, at first, but it bent to the only real power there is—divine Spirit. In minutes I felt the pain diminish and then fade out. The evidence of the material senses was reversed, and I was well.

Principle, Love, maintains the spiritual law of man's perfection. Believing and understanding this teaching of Christian Science gives one the courage to prove it. So doing, he is less apt to lose his clear view of his spiritual being and more likely to recognize that a physical difficulty is no more than an aggressive mental suggestion that he is material, destructible, and separated from good. As he exercises his ability and authority to talk down this enemy, he feels certain of victory. Then fearful material pictures fade.

Discord and evil have no strength or intelligence to perpetuate themselves. They cannot survive in the presence of all-encircling Love. It is through the understanding of infinite Love that we lose all fear of evil and of those who claim to be our enemies. Love's power is universal in scope.

When the human consciousness comes into harmony with spiritual good, yields to the power of Mind and understands the truth of being in God, the evidence of the material senses is corrected. Mrs. Eddy writes, "Science so reverses the evidence before the corporeal human senses, as to make this Scriptural testimony true in our hearts, 'The last shall be first, and the first last,' so that God and His idea may be to us what divinity really is and must of necessity be,—all-inclusive." ^{ibid., p. 116.}