There was a time when we believed that matter could make us sick; then, through seeing treatment in Christian Science change material conditions, we had to conclude that disease is mental. Occasionally, in this change of attitude toward disease the student of Christian Science tends to overestimate this mortal mind which seems to cause sickness. In place of the old fear of matter and its laws, he may set up a new fear—a fear of mortal mind and its power. He has had demonstrated, proved, to him that exposure to weather, that burns, that food, say, cannot hurt him. But he tends sometimes to think that his mortal mind, his own fear can. He argues: "When fear is removed, disease automatically disappears. Therefore I must beware of fearing. Fear is a cause; it can create evil; it can harm me; it has power."
True, Jesus the Christ many times plainly cast out fear before healing was manifest. "Be not afraid, only believe," he said to the ruler of the synagogue, and then he raised the ruler's daughter. He rebuked the fear of his disciples before the stormy sea of Galilee calmed. Mary Baker Eddy, in her explanation of the healing law by which Jesus and his followers wrought cures, emphasizes the necessity of destroying fear to cure sickness. She says in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 410), "Christian scientific practice begins with Christ's keynote of harmony, 'Be not afraid!'" Sickness is an ill feeling, a sense of evil, a supposition that discord exists. This fear that peace can be overpowered must be cast out, of course. But it is nothing formidable. It is only a "straw man," and it cannot fight back, nor can it act of itself.
The realization that fear and disease are one and the same is not the "conclusion of the whole matter." The important step in the reasoning is the next one. Mrs. Eddy says (Science and Health, p. 391), "Fear is the fountain of sickness, and you master fear and sin through divine Mind; hence it is through divine Mind that you overcome disease." That is, fear is as definitely powerless, as provably no cause, as the physical disease which is cured.
