In dealing with any problem the real warrior in Christian Science starts with a close examination of thought to be sure that there is nothing there but absolute reliance upon God, divine Principle. He realizes, as Mrs. Eddy has so emphatically said on page 167 of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," that "only through radical reliance on Truth can scientific healing power be realized," and he knows also that there is no real healing power but that which is Christianly scientific. He is therefore never tempted to resort in any way to material methods such as drugging, hygiene, or mortal mind suggestion. If a seeming solution of the problem has been reached, but not as the result of "radical reliance on Truth," he may be sure that "scientific healing power" has not been realized, nor has a complete and permanent healing been effected.
If the problem claiming attention is that of physical disease the Christian metaphysician calmly knows, right in the face of seeming evidence to the contrary, that there is no death, therefore no disease. He knows that God is Life, the only Life, that there is no life in matter, no material perfection, harmony, order, law, or activity. He knows that strength and health are not to be found in matter; therefore he is not engaged in the attempt to substitute a perfect material body for an imperfect one, thus perpetuating the false belief of life in matter, which is the only death there is. He is not concerned primarily with the so-called material body and its manifestations, for he knows that such a body is but the externalization of so-called mortal mind, or error. He is vitally concerned, however, in meeting every false suggestion of mortal mind with the scientific understanding of Truth. In this process mortal mind is not set up as something real and powerful, but it is seen to be just what it is— nothing, having neither place, power, nor manifestation.
The Christian Scientist does not ask or expect that sin, of whatever name or nature, shall go unpunished, knowing full well that God's method of pardon is the self-destruction of sin and its train of false beliefs. Fear is not given power and held up as something to be avoided because it may have power to harm. It is clearly seen that since God is the only presence and power, and God is Love, there is no fear, nothing to fear, nothing that can fear. Thus that seemingly subtle error, the fear of fear, is uncovered and destroyed.
