Have you been battling disease or some other trouble for months, or even years?

The difficulty is a lie about you, and it is no more true today than it was in the first moment you were concerned about it. It was a lie then, and it is a lie now.

If you are unfamiliar with Christian Science, you may find these statements startling. But as one learns to understand this healing religion—a religion in complete harmony with the teachings of Christ Jesus—it is not difficult to grasp its logic and provability, and its basic premise that because God, good, is All, evil is unreal.

The fact that a lie has been told for a long time does not thereby make it any truer. A lie is always a lie. It can never become true; it can never become more convincing just because of the length of time it has been suggested or accepted. If time seems to have made unseeing the lie harder, this is only because mortal mentality has mistakenly credited time with that ability. The fact about a lie is that it was not true when it first appeared, has not been true during the intervening period, is not true now, and never can become true.

If one is striving to overcome a tenacious illness, the suggestion sometimes comes: "I've been struggling with this for such a long time." Students of Christian Science learn that time is not a factor in healing. God, the ever-present, ever-loving Father of us all is, has been, and forever will be supremely, completely good. He provides us continually with perfection, health, joy, and dominion. Since God, Principle, never changes and all that is real emanates from Him, we can see that the length of time during which some particular problem has been confronting us is virtually irrelevant to its solution.

God and His perfection have been present right along, and all that has been or is needed is a clearer concept of essential truth. Regardless of the time that has elapsed, healing is presently available and can be realized. In order to cure a disease of long standing we need to be very sure we are not mentally bestowing importance and influence on a belief in the power of time, for it is not, in reality, a power at all. Mrs. Eddy begins her definition of "time" in the Glossary of Science and Health with two words: "Mortal measurements." ^{Science and Health, p. 595;} Man made in God's image and likeness is not fettered by power falsely attributed to time.

Jesus was able to heal serious diseases in a moment because he never accepted the lie that disease was real. Time was not a condition in either the disease or the healing. To a man who had been incapacitated for thirty-eight years he said, "Rise, take up thy bed, and walk." ^{John 5:8;} And the crippling condition that had seemed so real for all those years vanished at once. The belief that the duration of a difficulty is a deterrent to healing was proved to be without foundation.

Jesus' disciples also cured disabilities that had persisted for many years—even from birth. Nor was time an obstacle to the healing activities of the ancient prophets, who lived centuries before the time of Jesus. All these men were strengthened by their faith in God's allness and their consequent perception of the powerlessness of evil influences, regardless of what the physical evidence presented. The Principle by which they healed is forever, for it is God; it is just as present now as it was before or during Jesus' ministry. Mrs. Eddy writes, "Christianity as Jesus taught it was not a creed, nor a system of ceremonies, nor a special gift from a ritualistic Jehovah; but it was the demonstration of divine Love casting out error and healing the sick, not merely in the name of Christ, or Truth, but in demonstration of Truth, as must be the case in the cycles of divine light." ^{Science and Health, p. 135;}

If a spiritual fact is true—and every spiritual fact is—it is true right now, and when we recognize and acknowledge this, healing follows. No lie claiming the existence of a discordant condition yesterday, last week, or ten years ago can interfere with or influence the scientific removal of that false belief right now. The clear realization, through scientific prayer, that all evil is a lie opens the way to complete healing at once.

Someone may ask: Why, then, is not all Christian Science healing immediate? Only because we don't always realize the truth clearly, quickly, or thoroughly enough. But just as the mistake we make in an arithmetical reckoning does not indicate a fault in the rules of arithmetic, so our failure to fully understand God, the scientific Principle of Christian Science, does not invalidate this Science. In a case where a healing is not quickly achieved, faith, patience, confidence, and persistence in knowing and applying to the situation what is true of God and man will surely bring the healing. Refusal to be impressed by the length of time some problem has been in evidence is a giant step toward its solution.

The truths of Christian Science are as applicable to mental or moral challenges as they are to the ones called physical. Regeneration is always at hand, and a past history of unhappiness or wrong actions cannot delay healing when we declare and affirm the allness of God, the one Mind; when we recognize that an erroneous past is an untrue past; and when we prove that we have separated ourselves from the error.

Through our realization and demonstration of the truths of divine Science as taught by Jesus and set forth in Mrs. Eddy's writings, we are enabled to heal even the most stubborn belief in sickness or sin. And the false claim of time as an influence on a case is destroyed when we recognize that time is simply one phase of the erroneous belief in mortality, or a supposed life apart from God. We can joyfully claim our exemption from the supposed power of that would-be tyrant, time. We can respond to Mrs. Eddy's call: "Citizens of the world, accept the 'glorious liberty of the children of God,' and be free!"  ^{ibid., p. 227.}