Article March 3, 1906 Issue

The True Rationalism

J. R. Mosley

The Truth-Seeker

Christian Science teaches that true union with God is through virtue, truth, and love, rather than through adherence to any system of philosophical and religious belief, or through any form of mystical contemplation. It insists that the only way to understand God, Spirit, and the things of Spirit is to be spiritually minded, to live a spiritual, godly life.

The chief defect of much that is called rationalism is that, instead of admitting all the witnesses and proving all the testimony, it discredits a great host of witnesses and refuses to admit a great body of testimony. The testimony to which I refer is the whole spiritual history of humanity and the whole spiritual life of man. The men and women who have been more certain of God and of the reality of the things of the Spirit than of the objects perceived by the physical senses have been the best, the most heroic, sincere, and lovable people known among men. Indeed they tell us that just to the degree that God, good, has been a living reality to them, they have found it possible to overcome evil with good. The fact that the best and most certain of these witnesses whenever they are reviled revile not again, whenever they are abused they bless, whenever they are judged insane they act most sanely, shows that theirs is the certainty of knowledge rather than the uncertainty of belief. And is it not true that all of us, in our best moments, are most certain of the reality and supreme significance of the spiritual and least certain of the absolute reality of the physical; and, in our worst moments, most certain of the physical and least certain of the spiritual? The cast in favor of the spiritual point of view and attitude towards life is all the stronger when we take into account that a purely rational (in the sense of physical) point of view, to the degree that it is reduced to life practice, tends to produce a sense of physical, moral, and spiritual death.

The witnesses and testimony to the reality and supreme significance of the spiritual break down the authority of some forms of so-called rationalistic consciousness, the consciousness based upon human reason acting on the data of the physical senses.

Enjoy 1 free Sentinel article or audio program each month, including content from 1898 to today.

Send a comment to the editors
NEXT IN THIS ISSUE
Article
I have taken great pains to investigate and talk with persons...
March 3, 1906
Contents

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit