It is made plain in Christian Science, to the joy and great assistance of those who understand it, that any unsatisfactory condition is simply a false and illusory mental concept—a failure, in belief, to recognize the allness of good, or God, and the actual nature of man and the universe as His expression. It follows that the correction and disposal of unsatisfactory conditions comes through true enlightenment in accordance with Christ Jesus' statement (John 8:32), "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." This, in fact, is found in Christian Science practice to be the way of victory over evil of every kind, including disease. As the mental concept is improved through spiritual understanding, the evidence is improved; and the infinitude of good thus, step by step, becomes apparent.
What is of the utmost importance to mankind, and to every individual, therefore, is to see how false concepts seem to arise and to see that they do not do it; or if they seem to have arisen to see how they are disposed of, and to dispose of them.
If falsity appeared always on its face as falsity, or evil as evil, there would be relatively little difficulty about it. Everyone would seek to avoid it, even as a child or a dog avoids a hot coal when he learns what it is. Difficulty arises because falsity so often appears as true and evil so often as good. It is for this reason that the devil, which Christian Science shows to be only impersonal evil, is referred to in the Scriptures as a liar and a deceiver. Its nature is to deceive—to appear as something when in the allness of God it can only be nothing; to appear as powerful and formidable when it is completely impotent; and to appear as good when it is evil.
