How to give a successful Christian Science treatment is fully explained in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy. One of the longest chapters in this Christian Science textbook is entitled "Christian Science Practice." The last thirty-two pages of this chapter are under the subheading "Mental Treatment Illustrated," which is concluded with an allegory (pp. 430-442). In this allegory Mrs. Eddy shows how the student of Christian Science, if he does not instantaneously heal either himself or his patient, should marshall the scientific facts of being and, thus spiritually fortified, proceed to destroy through argument, much as an attorney argues a case in court, erroneous beliefs held as true. This mental refutation, when made in accord with the Principle and rules of Christian Science, brings to light man's God-bestowed health and harmony. Christian Science reveals that cataclysmic forces—disease, lack, unhappiness, sin, and death—are but objectified erroneous beliefs, ignorantly held to be true. Hence to destroy, through Christian Science treatment, the supposed reality of a belief destroys not only the belief but also its outward manifestation. Paul must have had in thought this scientific fact when he wrote (Rom. 12:2),"Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind."
In the trial allegory Mrs. Eddy shows that in Christian Science treatment by argument there must be systematic, thoroughgoing, specific affirmations of truth and correlative positive denials of the errors connected by mortal belief with the problem. Uncondemned errors remaining lodged in the thought of the patient become more and more entrenched and magnified, thus progressively worsening the case. On page 418 of Science and Health, under the marginal heading "Truthful arguments," Mrs. Eddy writes, "Whatever the belief is, if arguments are used to destroy it, the belief must be repudiated, and the negation must extend to the supposed disease and to whatever decides its type and symptoms." And on page 79 she states, "Science must go over the whole ground, and dig up every seed of error's sowing."
In times of sickness, peril, or temptation one might well ask himself: "Shall I permit my case to be judged in the inferior Court of Error, where I can have no defense against the evidence and arguments of False Belief, and where my innocency or guilt is determined by a jury not qualified to act because it consists of Mortal Minds, Materia Medica, Anatomy, Physiology, Hypnotism, Envy, Greed, and Ingratitude? Shall I not at once take my case into the Supreme Court of Spirit, where I can have Christian Science as my counsel and where my innocency is weighed by Spiritual Senses, which alone are capable of discerning the reality of my perfection as the son of God?" If one has already allowed himself to be tried and sentenced in the Court of Error, it is never too late to heed the call of that never-failing friend of mortals, Christ, Truth, and take one's case into the Supreme Court of Spirit, where the "guilty" verdict of the eight jurors in the Court of Error is always voided in accord with the supreme laws of God, good. In the allegory the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in his charge to the Jury of Spiritual Senses makes this cogent statement (ibid., p. 441): "The Supreme Bench decides in favor of intelligence, that no law outside of divine Mind can punish or reward Mortal Man."
