rue, we are in bondage
to the false. To _believe_ the claims of error is to be bound; to _know_
the reality of truth is to be free. To believe in a mind or power
separate or opposite from God, is to be subject to any suppositions or
beliefs formulated by that mind or negative thought.

"That we are spiritually perfect is true, but it is necessary for us to
prove that fact by 'working out our own salvation,' by manifesting the
positive or God quality of thought through our life and actions, and the
only way to be filled with good thought is to recognize and acknowledge
the Good only as the real.

"This error, tempter or devil, was spoken of by Jesus as having no
truth, as being a liar, and the father or cause of lies (John viii: 44).
Instead of devil (which is only another name for evil or the slanderer),
or 'carnal mind', as Paul called it, we find mortal thought a better
term for the expression of this power of thinking.

"'Why have we this power of thinking wrong thoughts when there is but
one good and only Mind?' you ask. As God's idea, in the image and
likeness of Mind that thinks, we have the power of recognition, the
power to be or not to be, the possibility to become sons of God. We have
the power to distinguish, to judge, to know; we have the spirit that
ever leads us on and on in truth.

"But here is where we fail. In our ignorance or limited state of
unfoldment, we have mistaken the symbol for that which is symbolized
matter is the symbol, as also the body, we have judged according to
appearances instead of righteous or strictly true judgment; we have
yielded to a belief in sin, hence are servants of sin.

"The conception of matter as having power, is based on appearances, and
because we have delegated to it a power, have acknowledged it as an
entity, separate from the eternal mind, it has enslaved us.

"Reasoning in this way we find everywhere two opposites or
contradictories to be recognized and judged, as the visible and the
invisible, the material and the spiritual, the false and the true, the
mortal and the immortal, the unreal and the real, the negative and the
positive.

"Judging of the true by that which is changeless and eternal, we can
decide at once on those qualities or attributes belonging to or
describing what is true, and by knowing what is true, we can readily
distinguish it from the erroneous.

"We have considered these great errors or negatives which the world has
believed and still