Consider for a moment the unique advantage of our position as Christian Scientists—an advantage equally open, of course, to everyone.
We are confronted with what appear to be material men and a material world, and the problems associated with materiality, but by reason of Christian Science we are without the dismay or uncertainty which much of mankind feels in the face of these appearance. We understand, first of all, that the appearances are not what they seem. They are not substantial and real, not actualities, but only the human mind's limited and distorted view of things—illusory mental pictures. When, therefore, they are out of order, by the ordinary standards, they are not actual substance out of order, and their adjustment does not depend on the limited material processes which are commonly considered the only recourse. Being illusory mental pictures, they are scientifically corrected by true perception of the facts.
What continually occurs in the practice of Christian Science is therefore wholly understandable. When, in the face of any disturbed condition, we turn to the truth of being, to the great facts of the allness of God, divine Mind, Life, and Love, and the likeness of man and the universe to Him as His perfect expression, we find the scene changing. Disease gives place to health, strife and unrest to peace, limitation to freedom from limitation, and so on, the change going on in any instance proportionally to our realization of the truth.
