Editorial March 6, 1909 Issue

THE RADIUS OF RIGHT THOUGHT

John B. Willis

One of the greatest offenses that a man can commit against his own best interest and the interest of his fellows is that of limiting in thought the range of freedom which Truth can bring. And here the Gentiles have not been the greatest sinners, for the reason that the demonstrations of him whom Christians call their Wayshower, and in whom they have professed to believe, unequivocally deny that there are any such limitations. The rebuke of the Master in this matter is brought to our attention today by the achievements of so-called physical science, the astonishing fact that the pulsating symbols of human thought are hurled out into the deserts of space as though a mighty voice were speaking from continent to continent, and received its answer from the islands and the ends of the earth. In a moment the accepted limitations of the centuries have been swept away, and a compass of freedom has been realized which would have staggered the most darling imagination of our forefathers.

Yet we may not forget that the ancient Greeks dreamed of Hermes, the messenger of the gods, the conveyer of sovereign thought, as having winged feet, while more than three thousand years before Marconi began to call across the seas the psalmist had said of the declarations of divine Truth, "Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world." This present-tense prophecy found its first great fulfilment in the flight of those inspired words of Christ Jesus which brought life and immortality to light, and which moved to their centers the nations of the old world in the first century. It is being fulfilled again today, through "the prayer of the righteous" in Christian Science, as the healing of the sick beyond the range of human voice and touch speaks for that omnipresence of Spirit of which the psalmist wrote: "If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me." Men speak of a wireless, but not of an etherless telegraphy. Human thought has simply laid hold upon the belief of a more refined, all-pervading material medium, it has gotten away somewhat from the arm's-length sense of experience and capacity, it has accepted a more attenuated concept of truth. This concept is, however, not a whit the less material, and while every such gain may expand the possibilities of human advance, we do well to remember our Leader's words when she tells us that these things are of "no moment, unless they illustrate the ethics of Truth" (Retrospection and Introspection, p. 21).

In its teaching that man lives, moves, and has his being in God, Christian Science sweeps away every seeming barrier to the freedom and effectiveness of the divine idea. The realization of the all-inclusiveness of the embrace of divine Mind will remove all sense of hindrance to the freedom of our influence for good, and demonstrate the possibility of our healing ministry across the seas. It is this that must beget in us a new and quickening consciousness of the unmeasured privilege and responsibility to which every intelligent Christian Scientist is called. Today as one looks out upon present-world conditions, he is impelled to cry out as did St. Paul, "The whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now;" but however vast and imperative the human need, the power and compassion of divine Love are adequate thereto, and Christian living finds its supreme occasion in this, that it is the channel for the healing activities of Truth. To know that as we cleave only to that which is of God, and refuse to listen to the appeals of material sense, we may help all humanity, that the hand of faith may be stretched forth for the lifting up of all who are willing to "turn unto the Lord," be they near or far,—this is to find a new meaning in life, it is to begin to measure the radius of right thought.

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