Accurate thinking is sure to find expression in the careful and accurate use of words, and a clear sense of the correct meaning of words is just that much of a help to accurate thinking; on the other hand, a careless use of language and an incorrect sense of the meaning of words not only indicates wrong thinking but tends to foster it. In the study and demonstration of Christian Science this correct understanding of the meaning of words extends far beyond the mere dictionary definition, although the dictionary definition, especially in its indication of root derivations and primary meanings, is often very helpful.
On page 349 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mrs. Eddy has written: "Speaking of the things of Spirit while dwelling on a material plane, material terms must be generally employed. Mortal thought does not at once catch the higher meaning, and can do so only as thought is educated up to spiritual apprehension." The earnest student of Christian Science, therefore, will be watchful of his own thought to see that he is not merely using words and phrases but that he is gaining the spiritual meaning—the truth which these words and phrases express. In order best to express the right idea, words are often used in ways that may be meaningless to those who are unacquainted with Christian Science and it is very necessary at times that this be kept in thought. For instance, the statement at a Wednesday evening meeting to the effect that the speaker had "demonstrated over a claim" may give little light to a stranger or may even seem grotesque, while a statement that the speaker had proved the power of God through Christian Science to heal sickness would come with definite and helpful meaning. Nevertheless, so far as he himself is concerned it is imperative that the Christian Scientist perceive clearly that what the world calls sickness is wholly a mental state—that this so-called mental condition is a metaphysical impossibility in the one perfect universe of Mind and so is, in reality, nothing but a false claim. This must be understood and demonstrated. Nothing is accomplished by merely substituting the word "claim" for the word "sickness," while the mental concept of disease as a physical condition remains unchanged.
Another expression much in use among Christian Scientists is "mental work," and a clear comprehension of its significance is essential to scientific demonstration. Human thought is so accustomed to moving in material grooves that it may accept the suggestion that mental work is simply the use of certain mental processes by which to produce a desired result—a mental method by which one can obtain health in the body, success in business, or the harmonious execution of one's plans in any line of endeavor. In a sense, this is true; but there is need to be on guard against a subtle misconception which simulates the right idea but which like all such simulations is as far removed from the right idea as darkness is from light. This error, with self-will as its motive power and a mortal thought process as its modus operandi, would produce for itself the conditions of its own selfish desire.
