Article October 13, 1906 Issue

THE ONE MIND

BLANCHE H. HOGUE.

The basic teaching of Christian Science, that there exists but one Mind, that this one Mind is God, and that the knowledge of this counteracts the unhappy results of believing there are minds many, operates to bring a salvation to mankind which will eventually triumph over every phase of evil. The Christian Science text-book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy, affirms that there is but one Mind because there is but one God. This may seem difficult to grasp, on account of the complexities of human education, but it is in reality the simplest statement of Christianity which the world has heard since Jesus of Nazareth declared that Christ, Truth, alone can give rest to all who are weary and heavy-laden. Christianity, fully and scientifically stated in Christian Science, lifts thought to comprehend the great truth that there is one Mind, that this Mind is infinite good, God, and that, therefore, there is no other Mind. This revelation, unfolded in Science and Health by means of intelligent reasoning and explanation, so refutes the arguments of material thought-processes, so called, that the reader is able spiritually to discern the divine logic of scientific Christianity, and to accept, in its simplicity and purity, the statement of the existence of but one Mind.

So soon as this inspired setting forth of the truth is discerned, the individual thus convinced is confronted by the claim that he still continues to exist in an environment of minds many, and that he must work his way to the realization of the ideal condition through whatever human footsteps may be necessary. From the human side the question may be approached somewhat in this fashion: That there can be only one truth about everything which exists; that innumerable falsehoods may claim to prevail about anything, but that the thing really can exist only in one true way; therefore there is but one truth about it, and all men who unite in knowing this truth are "of one mind" upon the subject. To illustrate: Suppose it were possible for a person to be so ignorant or so abnormal that there was but one thing in the world about which he knew the truth. Let it be, for example, the truth that two added to two make four. Suppose a second person, also wandering in a maze of ignorance or hallucination, differing in phenomena but similar in kind, should awake to the truth about two and two. These two people, so diverse in their ignorance, would find themselves absolutely in accord in their enlightenment. For the first time they would be "one" in their apprehension of this truth. Let these two individuals who have united in a common understanding of this one question, continue to add more and more to their store of enlightenment and to dispel proportionately the illusions of ignorance, and they will grow to be "of one mind" upon all matters about which they know the truth. If this can be pictured as applied to all mankind, and as continuing until that which is true about everything is rightly understood by everybody, it implies a millennial condition in which there can remain no erroneous way of thinking about anything. The whole realm of diverse and mistaken opinion, judgment, and conclusion would have melted away, and all men would unite in their thinking, their knowing, and their enjoyment of what they know. Individuality would not be lost, but each in his individual way would know rightly, not wrongly, whatever there is to be known. No confusion, misunderstanding, or wrong point of view could prevail, for all would rejoice in the light of understanding which reveals all things as they are.

Mrs. Eddy has discovered, in this age, the way of salvation from all erroneous belief and its results. She has set before humanity the way to the attainment of the Christ-ideal, as wrought out by the Master in his daily demonstration of the truth, and has made clear to the one who would walk in this way the footsteps to be taken. Much of that which the so-called human mind has called truth, and in which the "minds many" have tried unsuccessfully to unite, is found to be a counterfeit invention, a false sense of truth. Governed by passing standards affected by the blindness of personal motive and subject to caprice and change, it must crumble before the advancing revelation of that truth which is one with God, one with the Principle which contains and maintains all that is real. In the passing of the fables of mythology, the theories of ancient astronomy, the century-old methods of materia medica, and the severity and gloom of the old-time theology, one may read the fate of the mortal sense of things, however closely it may have been cherished in the hour of its supremacy. In like manner the network of sin and suffering now enmeshing humanity will be recognized as fable, not fact: as false reasoning, false pleasure, false testimony, and it will cease to have a place in human experience as the reality of being becomes apparent.

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