The material world tells us constantly that both good and evil are evolving from matter and that through human knowledge we will eventually shackle the evil and allow the good to thrive unopposed. When things are going well we might lose sight of the fact that there is a true, spiritual sense of good and accept the erroneous notion that "material" good has the upper hand, and if left alone by any malicious evil this apparent good will continue to evolve in progressive ways as if it were infinite.
Except for the skeptic or the extreme pessimist, most of us want to believe that good is natural and that right living brings its right reward, that there is some inherent sense of justice in human existence. Unless one is actively cultivating his spiritual sense of life, however, most of the evidence of existence seems to come through the material senses. So it is not surprising that the good we experience would appear to us to be material. For example, if an individual has held a certain job for many years, enjoys it, is adequately paid and feels content, he might drift into believing that his security is in that job, that his resources come from his employer, that his identity is in the position he holds. Under such beliefs, a disruption or loss of that job could prove disastrous. Or, lulled into a false sense of material contentment and security, the individual could be blind to opportunities that would lead to spiritual growth as well as human betterment.
Similarly, an individual who has experienced consistent good health might be tempted to believe that matter is the source and support of well-being, that the material body is what feels well and is cognizant of health. If he is alert to this temptation, he will challenge material beliefs about health and develop his understanding of the spiritual facts governing well-being. Then his trust and security will not unknowingly be grounded in matter. Mrs. Eddy writes in Science and Health, "It is as necessary for a health-illusion, as for an illusion of sickness, to be instructed out of itself into the understanding of what constitutes health; for a change in either a health-belief or a belief in sickness affects the physical condition."
Science and Health, p. 297 .
