In the seventeenth chapter of Matthew we read that Jesus healed the epileptic boy after his disciples had failed in their efforts to do so. The disciples did not understand why they had been unsuccessful, and they asked Jesus privately to explain their failure. He said (verse 20), "Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you."
The disciples' faith in the truth of being was not strong enough to withstand the doubt caused by physical appearances. Jesus' complete conviction rebuked their doubting sense. Mrs. Eddy brings out the necessity for conviction of spiritual truth in healing. She says in Science and Health (p. 418): "Plead with an honest conviction of truth and a clear perception of the unchanging, unerring, and certain effect of divine Science. Then, if your fidelity is half equal to the truth of your plea, you will heal the sick."
We must become thoroughly convinced that our conceptions of a material man and a material universe are nothingness, illusion, and that Spirit, Mind, and its ideas alone constitute reality. Our sense of reality must become diametrically opposite to that which mortal mind presents.
