THE process of untangling false concepts from our thinking and supplanting them with the truth, must be seen as the fundamental work of each individual; and the vital necessity of its thoroughness must be apprehended, if one is to avoid the discouraging experience of frequently having to go back to correct the mistakes made in superficially applying the law of divine Principle. When healing has come through the application of the truth as revealed in Christian Science, one is often so uplifted by the experience that one's whole pathway in life seems illumined with the light of freedom. Christ, Truth, has opened up to the thought so many vistas of hope and joy that one feels that the process is so simple that every problem must yield to it immediately. As one goes on, however, in the study of divine Principle, the problems may seem to become more intricate, and their solution is sometimes delayed. It is then that the student of Christian Science realizes the necessity for more thorough understanding of what its application involves. When he has reached this place in his growth, he learns that he can bring forth fruit only with patient study and unflinching application of the laws of this great Principle as they unfold in his consciousness.
Of the process of disentangling, Mrs. Eddy thus writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 114): "Christian Science explains all cause and effect as mental, not physical. It lifts the veil of mystery from Soul and body. It shows the scientific relation of man to God, disentangles the interlaced ambiguities of being, and sets free the imprisoned thought." The false concepts of man and his origin are the suppositional inheritance of the entire human race. The problems arising from these ambiguities are much the same, differentiated only because of the individual's education and environment. The Principle to be demonstrated is the same in every case. This fact should broaden the sympathies, and make more Christly the patience of each Christian Scientist, as he goes on with this work for himself and for those who come to him for help. Progress requires of him, however, a more thorough and far-reaching understanding of the Principle with which he made his first demonstrations. Theoretically he has accepted the simple rule given by Mrs. Eddy on page 259 of Science and Health, "The Christlike understanding of scientific being and divine healing includes a perfect Principle and idea.—perfect God and perfect man,—as the basis of thought and demonstration;" but its deeper significance, in its application to every preconceived standard of thought and action, must be grasped, and the work necessitated in changing those attitudes and all it entails of self-immolation, must be undertaken lovingly.
In this disentangling process one may come upon some surprising and chagrining ambiguities in his thinking. He may even find a feeling of self-gratulation upon his own superiority of race, nation, or family, from the point of view of cultural inheritances and traits! The Principle which he is trying to demonstrate in the working out of his problem will uncover to him that he is accepting both a human and a divine origin for man; whereas divine Science reveals that there is but one Father-Mother God, and that each son and daughter of that parentage inherits the intelligence, power, and capacity of infinite Mind, equally with every other child. This right concept accepted will begin to correct the wrong relations created by the ambiguous standard. This change in attitude will enable him to discover many more points of sympathetic contact with his fellow-men, and will enlarge his opportunities for helpfulness. The envy, jealousy, and hate engendered by his wrong thinking will be dissolved by the activity of right thinking, thus removing some of the obstructions to the solving of his own problem.
