Sometimes it's hard to keep sticking up for things we believe in. Outright attack, lingering discomfort, or propaganda can tempt us to compromise our standards—including our adherence to Christian Science.
In human affairs, compromise is often a useful tool. But when our loyalty to the Church of Christ, Scientist, including Mrs. Eddy's Manual of The Mother Church, or our trust in Christian Science healing is challenged, we must be steadfast. In return, the benefits of this fidelity are tremendous.
The devilish tempter that would shake our confidence in Christian Science is called by Mrs. Eddy "animal magnetism," the false belief that substance, life, and intelligence are material. This belief attacks the fundamental fact of God's allness and the unreality of matter. We may find it hard to affirm that real existence, the outcome of God, is spiritual, when life appears to be in our physical bodies. But if we think life depends on a material structure, we are allowing our bodies to control us. We then become subject to the whole array of health laws based on material existence, with their elements of chance and limitation. Through Science we learn that what seems to be happening in or to the body is a result of mortal mind. We govern our bodies by correcting the false beliefs of mortal mind and by relying on divine Mind, the only real intelligence. Mind continually maintains its idea, man, through spiritual substance, not through matter—even such beguilingly disguised matter as a vitamin pill.
