No illness, no appearance of lack or of inharmony can withstand the healing power of the Christ, Truth, as revealed in Christian Science. Healing occurs through the knowing and applying of this Truth. The operation of the divine law of Christian Science is as certain as is the finding of the correct answer to an arithmetic problem when the rule is known and properly applied. As in arithmetic, however, so in Science, the correct answer does not appear if the mistake is not recognized as a mistake, and if the rule is not specifically used.
Christian Science teaches that because God, good, is the only creator, all that is not good is erroneous and unreal. It teaches also that evil must be seen as evil, hence unreal, else one is liable to assume its reality and suffer from his own ignorance.
The not uncommon tendency of human thought to avoid concern with the specific claim of evil and to dwell only on error or solely on good was the experience of the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy. She relates in her autobiography, "Retrospection and Introspection," that she at first intended to publish her textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," without calling specific attention to the modes of mortal mind action, which she terms animal magnetism. The publishing of the book, for no reason known to her, was delayed by the printer. Finally Mrs. Eddy yielded to a conviction that she must insert a chapter which was to be a partial history of what she had observed of mental malpractice. Then the printing of the book went forward. This chapter appears in the textbook under the title "Animal Magnetism Unmasked." In discussing this incident, Mrs. Eddy makes it clear that the inclusion of the subject was part of the divine purpose.
