WITH the anticipation of getting anything, there is generally a provision made for its reception as well as for its care. If it is a new piece of furniture, the housewife decides where it shall be put, and prepares a proper place for it by rearranging, perchance, all the furniture of the room. Upon first thought it may seem strange to the individual who is seeking health through Christian Science, to be told that he likewise must provide for health by preparing a proper place in which to receive and take care of it. He soon learns, however, that such a place is not supplied by a material body, nor is the taking care of it in obedience to material law. Life, as the Bible teaches, is dependent upon an understanding of God, good, whereas "the flesh profiteth nothing."
From this point of view, the provision for and care of health becomes a question of mind, and depends upon the conscious activity of love and truth. These activities emanate from the divine Mind, which never mingles with evil; and thus whatever is to express health must be spiritually intelligent and lovely, pure and good. Right consciousness embraces these qualities, and therefore true health is gained and permanently retained only by those who have acquired a scientific sense of being. On the other hand, erroneous or untrue consciousness is filled with beliefs of fear and evil, which are externalized in disease and wrong-doing; and since it is no more possible to think wrong and right at the same time than it is to be sick and well at the same time, we may learn to provide for health by thinking good and unthinking evil. As this is done, nothing can enter human experience but that which is good and healthful, even as in the garden out of which all weeds have been removed nothing blossoms but that which has been planted therein.
This mental process of making ready for health is simple and easy, when one is willing to place the desire for good before the longing for physical freedom, and then to put this desire into use by seeking right motives and methods for manifesting good. The seeker after health thus becomes a seeker after righteousness, and as one discovers the omnipotence of good, he becomes meek, teachable, joyous, and trustful in God, even as a little child. He finds that, no matter how dormant it may be, there is more good in the human heart than is generally conceded, and that it only waits to be used. As one is awakened by the sincere desire to know God, he makes a noble effort to escape from a material sense of self, and through divine aid gathers its hitherto scattered energies into one supreme purpose to express the ideal. Then, even as water is drawn upward by the sun, this human good is caught up unto God, where the sinning, dying concept of man dissolves into its native nothingness, and consciousness is filled with the ideas of Truth until human thought gratefully rejoices in the strength of dominion, and in the freedom of health gained through spiritual understanding.
