Editorial July 30, 1921 Issue

"All that really is"

Gustavus S. Paine

The simple gladness to be alive is fresh and vital because it is the proof of Life itself, untouched by any confused sense of human ways and means nurtured by the supposed mortal mind as it expands its unreal belief. The true being alive shows, of course, that there must be some cause for living, and this cause is Life, Mind, Supreme Being, than which nothing else can be proved to exist. God is the tender name given to the one Mind which makes and keeps the real man alive. Even though the human sense of living is but belief and must be replaced with the true idea, yet the fact that living appears in any way proves that there must be true Life, ever expressed as idea or divine action.

To known God as Mind is to be sure that God is present and takes care of all real living. Boundless Mind is all that could be always present and fully potent. Once one has proved to himself that Life or Mind is, he knows that what truly is must be all there is, for what is not simply does not exist. In other words, there is no halfway stage between what is and what is not. The one Mind with its idea must be all that really exists, and Mind must sustain idea in perfect order. As Mrs. Eddy says on page 150 of "Miscellaneous Writings," "God is universal; confined to no spot, defined by no dogma, appropriated by no sect. Not more to one than to all, is God demonstrable as divine Life, Truth, and Love; and His people are they that reflect Him—that reflect Love. Again, this infinite Principle, with its universal manifestation, is all that really is or can be; hence God is our Shepherd. He guards, guides, feeds, and folds the sheep of His pasture; and their ears are attuned to His call. In the words of the loving disciple, 'My sheep hear my voice, ... and they follow me; ... neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.'"

Mind is what directs all true action, and the true action of Mind is the real man, the sheep of the great Shepherd, nourished, sustained, guarded from supposed evil, by perfect divine Love. Idea, the action of Spirit, cannot avoid knowing what its cause, the divine Mind, knows. The phrase "sheep of the great Shepherd" is, of course, only a figure of speech to show that true living follows always the guidance of its cause. Sheep, in this instance, is but a name for man, the image and likeness of Mind. The knowing of the truth in this respect broadens one's view of God and man, for it shows that what is true about Shepherd is always true of God, and that what is true of sheep must likewise be true of man. If this were not so, God and man would be confined to narrow human concepts. There is no halfway stage between all that truly is and what does not really exist. Mind and its idea is, indeed, all there really is in any instance, for any human name must be merely a term for either Mind or idea, and it never changes the nature of either Mind or idea to use any names one may choose for the sake of clearness.

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