In their more exact definitions, confidence and strength have each their own peculiar meaning, their separate scope and significance. Yet the two are so closely related in common experience that to speak of confidence at once calls up a mental picture of strength; and strength implies in most cases a corresponding degree of confidence. Macaulay speaks of "a cheerful confidence in the mercy of God." And one could not well conceive of a person endued with this "cheerful confidence" lacking in strength and stability of character. Neither can one vision real, true strength of character unaccompanied by confidence in ultimate supreme good.
In order for confidence to be genuine and effective there must be a rational understanding as to what it is that inspires this sense of trust, an intelligent comprehension of the foundation on which it is laid. "Reason is the most active human faculty," writes Mrs. Eddy in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 327). Through the ability to reason rightly, and a consequently awakened consciousness, mankind is coming into an enlarged measure of freedom, and correspondingly into improved moral and physical conditions. The world is no doubt thinking more actively and comprehensively at the present time than it has at any time during the history of civilization. Individual progress must be based on intelligent, constructive thinking and on honest, sincere meditation, as well as sound reasoning. Confidence in spiritual good springs from the understanding of God as the one unchanging, supreme, infinite good. Christian Science is instructing mankind that this understanding can be gained by the study of spiritual law and the rules that govern its operation and demonstration. The concomitants of this spiritual understanding must always be strength, a wise endurance, and an enlarged capacity.
In our efforts to understand and utilize divine metaphysics there should be no half-hearted, halting mental condition. The prize is not to the sluggard; it is the steadfast, unswerving effort and the heart of faith that are blessed. In order to obtain results, such as the healing of any phase of mental or physical inharmony, we shall be obliged to bring the same honest effort and sincere striving that we put into any other line of endeavor in which we wish to succeed. The so-called mortal or carnal mind is always in a state of antagonism to good in all its forms. If it were not for this understanding of the human mind's disposition to keep the human race forever in bondage, it might seem an amazing thing that one can realize the necessity for years of study and effort along lines of so-called natural science, and yet cannot understand that a knowledge of the great Science of Life cannot be gained by a cursory, desultory application of its divine Principle and the laws of harmonious living. Without this understanding of the tenacity of error, it might seem a presumptuous thing that one should give long and ardent application of thought to the rules of mathematics, of music, of languages, and yet expect to master at a single reading of Science and Health the Science which expounds the truth about God and man and the universe.
