I Went into the garden one afternoon to remove some weeds from our vegetable patch. This particular weed has corms that break off from the roots as the plant is removed from the earth. In order to avoid propagating a new growth of the weed, extreme care is needed to seek out and remove all the corms. I had been thinking that day about the continual attention needed to root out error from our thought.

As I weeded I likened the weeds with their corms to erroneous thoughts. As we seek to know God better, we need to eliminate erroneous, disease-producing concepts from our consciousness and replace them with a spiritually based understanding of the allness of God. When error is exterminated by the Science of Christ, Truth, it is utterly destroyed, never to return. I saw how meticulous one needed to be in clearing erroneous beliefs out of thought so that every error is exterminated, not just covered up to propagate anew later.

I could see that each time consciousness is freed from even a small amount of error, healing takes place. In our garden the effect of my careful weeding was evident when this section of the ground remained relatively free from this particular weed over the next few years. And careful weeding of thought has a similar effect, as we can see in two familiar examples from daily experience: business and health.

First, business.

Businesses may appear to be the means by which human needs are supplied. The customers, managers, salesmen, manufacturers, producers, may appear to be struggling to outdo one another—all trying to get a bigger slice of the cake. But this limited human concept mistakenly assumes a basic state of imbalance in which good is in short supply and evil, like the weed in my garden, can propagate itself. Looked at from a spiritual standpoint, however, business is the operation of divine Principle, the expression of God, divine Mind. Because infinite intelligence is constant and impartial, there is no element of chance in its operation, no lucky or unlucky breaks, no unfortunate fluctuations, no need to compete ruthlessly for a supposedly limited supply of good.

When this spiritual truth is prayerfully cherished, it eliminates in some degree the erroneous claim that material circumstances can deny the allness of God or give power to matter or mortal mind. Then thought is free to perceive increasingly the spiritual reality of man as God's reflection, and the abundance of God's goodness is found to be the present reality. This is the evidence that truth is exterminating error; it is the practical result of the fundamental trust in God that results from understanding His nature.

The Bible indicates that like many today, Abram (later known as Abraham) had plenty of opportunities to prove that trusting God's goodness is practical. At one time, when the land could not support both him and his nephew Lot, together, they separated, and Abram allowed Lot to choose what appeared to be the better land. Abram then received God's promise "Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou are northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward: for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever."  ^{Gen. 13:14, 15.} What a wonderful reward for Abram's faithfulness and generosity!

The ever-present control of God, divine Love, exterminates error, and nearly four thousand years has not changed the potency of this Love. Through our consecrated prayer to and confidence in God, we can see His power as Abram did. As trust and confidence in God advance to understanding and conviction of His allness, they are abundantly rewarded.

Second, health.

Certain foods, material conditions, or circumstances are believed to cause particular harmonious or inharmonious effects. But these suggestions contradict the very nature of God, man, and substance, and so must be rejected from our thought.

The First Commandment, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me," ^{Ex. 20:3.} is radical and basic. To worship or bow down to matter as a cause is contrary to it. And when the error of believing that matter can be a cause is eliminated through the understanding that God alone is causative, we will not be fooled into recommending a particular food or exercise to combat disease or promote health.

This is not to say we should neglect to provide proper care and nourishment for the body. But isn't there a distinction between normal care and bowing down to matter as a god? Christ Jesus met the human need, as is illustrated by his healing the multitudes and feeding the five thousand in the wilderness, but he never bowed to other gods. As Mrs. Eddy comments, "Jesus never asked if disease were acute or chronic, and he never recommended attention to laws of health, never gave drugs, never prayed to know if God were willing that a man should live." ^{Science and Health, p. 369.}

He did, however, say: "Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. ... But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." ^{Matt. 6:25, 33.} As we seek a better understanding of God's reign of harmony, we eliminate the material sense of being from our thinking. Harmony, peace, health, and joy naturally follow.

Any acceptance of evil as power or cause is a denial of God's all-power. Christian Science treatment, however, eliminates all forms of false belief—including disease—through the understanding of the allness of the power of God, good. This spiritual understanding is not a human faculty, not something we gain by accretion; it expresses divine Mind. The emphatic call for fundamental, understanding trust in God is the basis of Christianity. And as we make a conscious effort to express more good in everything we think or do, the supposed elements of evil disappear through the power of Christ, Truth. This healing can take place only in individual consciousness. It is found by seeking first the kingdom of heaven. In Miscellaneous Writings Mrs. Eddy writes of Jesus' promise: "'He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do,' is a radical and unmistakable declaration of the right and power of Christianity to heal; for this is Christlike, and includes the understanding of man's capabilities and spiritual power." ^{Mis., p. 193.}

As the distinction between the false beliefs of mortal mind and the spiritual facts of being becomes clearer to us, our concept of reality is transformed, although reality itself is untouched by this transformation. God's creation is already perfect. In reality there is nothing to be annihilated, for error never had a real entity. As Mrs. Eddy writes, "The exterminator of error is the great truth that God, good, is the only Mind, and that the supposititious opposite of infinite Mind—called devil or evil—is not Mind, is not Truth, but error, without intelligence or reality." ^{Science and Health, p. 469.}

Understanding the fact that man reflects God precludes disease. Cherishing the fact that man reflects God precludes lack of fulfillment or supply. And living up to the fact that man reflects God reveals ever-present, universal harmony. In this transformation of our understanding, the errors of mortal belief—including sin, disease, and death—are seen to have no place, because ever-present Truth is true.