Article October 2, 1909 Issue

TRUTH IS POSITIVE

ANNA L. SANBORN

The beginner in Christian Science passes through the most marvelous change of thought which can take place in human consciousness. A new spiritual world opens before him: cosmos is emerging from chaos, and with this first awakening to the truth there comes often an almost overwhelming sense of the amount of erroneous thinking which must be reversed. In our attempt at constant denial of these countless incorrect thoughts which crowd for admission, we often slip into a negative way of working. We declare, "It is not," or "There is not," until the sense of that which is—God's allness—is lost. Consequently we fail to see the truth of our denials, and the confronting errors, instead of being eliminated seem to flourish like the green bay-tree, and cloud all our sense of the actual and real.

The first step in all scientific reasoning is the establishment or acceptance of a basic law which is positive. Starting with an absolute affirmative proposition, one has something, a first fact, upon which to base his denials, and it is only as the negations are logically deduced from this major premise that they have any weight as fact or truth. In Christian Science we are dealing with the truth respecting God and man. We should, then, have clearly in mind what God (our positive Principle) is, before it can be apparent to us what error is not. Working in the negative alone is utterly fruitless. God, we know, is not a principle, but Principle itself,—all-law, all-power, all-government, all-encompassing divine Love. There is nothing negative about Him, nothing to deny. He is all inclusive, all good. "Nothing" and "not" cannot be associated with "I am that I am." All that ever can be changed or negatived is our false concept of Him and His universe.

Then what is man? "In his own image, in the image of God created he him." Again an affirmation, a healing truth, that man is created as the expression of God, good; and the conclusion follows that he too is perfect, "good" and "very good." He has then no errors and no problems. We must, therefore, lift our eyes "unto the hills," work in Truth, not error, until we see clearly that it is because God is infinite good and man is His perfect reflection, that all these arguments which confront us are miserable lies, causeless, mindless, powerless. Mere illusions they are, lacking logic and reason, for in the realm of the real they can have no existence.

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