to a good
sense, or conscious goodness, the fruits of goodness will
follow, and he has reformed the sinner. [30]

[Page 220.]

Now, demonstrate this rule, which obtains in every [1]
line of mental healing, and you will find that a good rule
works one way, and a false rule the opposite way.

Let us suppose that there is a sick person whom an-
other would heal mentally. The healer begins by mental [5]
argument. He mentally says, "You are well, and you
know it;" and he supports this silent mental force by
audible explanation, attestation, and precedent. His
mental and oral arguments aim to refute the sick man's
thoughts, words, and actions, in certain directions, and [10]
turn them into channels of Truth. He persists in this
course until the patient's mind yields, and the harmonious
thought has the full control over this mind on the point
at issue. The end is attained, and the patient says and
feels, "I am well, and I know it." [15]

This mental practitioner has changed his patient's
consciousness from sickness to health. The patient's
mental state is now the diametrical opposite of what it
was when the mental practitioner undertook to transform
it, and he is improved morally and physically. [20]

That this mental method has power and bears fruit,
is patent both to the conscientious Christian Scientist and
the observer. Both should understand with equal clear-
ness, that if this mental process and power be reversed,
and people believe that a man is sick and knows it, and [25]
speak of him as being sick, put it into the minds of others
that he is sick, publish it in the newspapers that he is
failing, and persist in this action of mind over mind, it
follows that he will believe that he is sick,--and Jesus
said it would be according to the woman's belief; but if [30]
with the certainty of Science he knows that an error of
belief has not the power of Truth, and cannot, does

[Page 221.]

not, produce the slightest effect, it has no power over [1]
him. Thus a mental malpractitioner may lose his
power to harm by a false mental argument; for it
gives one opportunity to handle the error, and when
mastering it one gains in the rules of metaphysics, and [5]
thereby learns more of its divine Principle. Error pro-
duces physical sufferings, and these sufferings show
the fundamental Principle of Christian Science; namely,
that error and sickness are one, and Truth is their
remedy. [10]

The evil-doer can do little at