Mortal belief is a liar from the beginning, not deserving
power. It says to mortals, "You are wretched!" and they
297:1 think they are so; and nothing can change this state, until
the belief changes. Mortal belief says, "You are happy!"
297:3 and mortals are so; and no circumstance can
alter the situation, until the belief on this sub-
ject changes. Human belief says to mortals, "You are
297:6 sick!" and this testimony manifests itself on the body as
sickness. It is as necessary for a health-illusion, as for
an illusion of sickness, to be instructed out of itself into
297:9 the understanding of what constitutes health; for a change
in either a health-belief or a belief in sickness affects the
physical condition.
Self-improvement
297:12 Erroneous belief is destroyed by truth. Change the
evidence, and that disappears which before seemed real
to this false belief, and the human conscious-
297:15 ness rises higher. Thus the reality of being
is attained and man found to be immortal. The only
fact concerning any material concept is, that it is neither
297:18 scientific nor eternal, but subject to change and dis-
solution.
Faith higher than belief
Faith is higher and more spiritual than belief. It is
297:21 a chrysalis state of human thought, in which spiritual
evidence, contradicting the testimony of mate-
rial sense, begins to appear, and Truth, the
297:24 ever-present, is becoming understood. Human thoughts
have their degrees of comparison. Some thoughts are
better than others. A belief in Truth is better than a
297:27 belief in error, but no mortal testimony is founded on the
divine rock. Mortal testimony can be shaken. Until
belief becomes faith, and faith becomes spiritual under-
297:30 standing, human thought has little relation to the actual
or divine.
A mortal belief fulfils its own conditions. Sickness,
298:1 sin, and death are the vague realities of human conclu-
sions. Life, Truth, and Love are the realities of divine
298:3 Science. They dawn in faith and glow full-orbed in
spiritual understanding. As a cloud hides the sun it
cannot extinguish, so false belief silences for a while the
298:6 voice of immutable harmony, but false belief cannot de-
stroy Science armed with faith, hope, and fruition.
Truth's witness
What is termed material sense can report only a mor-
298:9 tal temporary sense of things, whereas spiritual sense can
bear witness only to Truth. To material sense,
the unreal is the real until this sense is corrected
298:12 by Christian Science.
Spiritual sense, contradicting the material senses, in-
volves intuition, hope, faith, understanding, fruition, real-
298:15 ity. Material sense expresses the belief that mind is in
matter. This human belief, alternating between a sense
of pleasure and pain, hope and fear, life and death, never
298:18 reaches beyond the boundary of the mortal or the unreal.
When the real is attained, which is announced by Science,
joy is no longer a trembler, nor is hope a cheat. Spirit-
298:21 ual ideas, like numbers and notes, start from Principle,
and admit no materialistic beliefs. Spiritual ideas lead
up to their divine origin, God, and to the spiritual sense
298:24 of being.
Thought-angels