The effect of spiritual Truth in consciousness is change—improvement—in both the human mind and body. This process of improvement, of spiritual development and progress, plays a key role in the practice of Christian Science healing. "Christian Science brings to the body the sunlight of Truth, which invigorates and purifies," writes Mrs. Eddy in Science and Health. She goes on, "Christian Science acts as an alterative, neutralizing error with Truth. It changes the secretions, expels humors, dissolves tumors, relaxes rigid muscles, restores carious bones to soundness. The effect of this Science is to stir the human mind to a change of base, on which it may yield to the harmony of the divine Mind." Science and Health, p. 162
Quite often the human mind tries to bypass change. For example, sometimes people want Christ, Truth, to give them inspiration and healing, but they are not so willing to have their comfortable ways of thinking disturbed. This doesn't work, though, because thought must be changed, made new, by Truth so that healing can occur. No one knew this better than our Lord, Christ Jesus.
Jesus used a parable to illustrate the need to welcome the changes his teachings demanded. He said: "No man putteth new wine into old bottles; else the new wine will burst the bottles, and be spilled, and the bottles shall perish. But new wine must be put into new bottles; and both are preserved." Luke 5:37, 38 Wine was kept in goatskin bottles. Old goatskins grew brittle and could easily crack and burst open under the stress of after-fermentation, which commonly occurs in new wine. New wine could be safely accommodated only by new, supple goatskins. Even so, the revelations of Truth can only be accommodated by spiritually receptive thought—thought that welcomes spiritual purification and regeneration. Commenting on this parable, The Interpreter's Bible says, "The parable of the new wine is a striking statement of the revolutionary character, the creative fermentation, of the new faith." The Interpreter's Bible, Vol. 7, p. 355
