When we encounter difficulty in healing, it may be that we do not have the right concept of matter. We may be thinking of it as something external to thought and independent of thought. Christian Science teaches that matter is a subjective state, that all material conditions are essentially conditions of thought, and that a change of thought is the basic need in any circumstance calling for healing. In fact, matter is variously described in this Science as limited material mentality, human will, the qualities of mortality, mortal mind. It is a condition of thought. It is the way mortal mind thinks.
According to some of the latest reports on experiments by physical scientists, there is much uncertainty about long held concepts regarding matter. It is said that at the basic level of subnuclear particles the science of physics may have to be rebuilt. Such fluidity of material information, such instability of conceptual standpoints, might well serve in some measure to release thought from traditional reverence for the testimony of the material senses. Christian Science teaches that we should not accept sense testimony as reality and that we should not consent to discordant material conditions.
In this Science, substance is Mind, God, and Mind is the only lawgiver, the only creator and conditioner of man. Man is a spiritual idea, the child or offspring of God, and as such he reflects the perfect nature of God and is amenable to the laws of eternal Life, Truth, and Love. This is the unchanging relation between God and man, and it is the basis of the healing activity in Christian Science. What, then, stands in the way when healing seems extended and results fluctuate? It may well be that we have not the right concept of matter as mortal mentality, and that we are not yielding our thought to the Christ, the healing power of divine Mind.
