Article August 27, 1910 Issue

BEING LIKE-MINDED

VIOLET KER SEYMER

There is only one way in which the human race can become "like-minded," and that is by becoming divine-minded; by patiently emerging from the chaos of the carnal mind, so called, into the perfect order of that Mind "which was also in Christ Jesus." There being in reality but one Mind, and that Mind at peace with all its ideas, human warfare will cease and all nations be drawn together into one fellowship only in the degree in which each individual draws nearer to that one Mind, thinks and lives and acts in conformity with its inherent perfection. The Father-Mind blesses all its ideas, all its children, equally, and if there are those who are not inheriting the blessings, it is perhaps because they have not yet learned how to seek them. In pressing toward this common goal, each must keep his gaze fixed upon it, resisting the constant temptation to become absorbed either in his own or his neighbor's opinions, theories, triumphs, or failures.

For instance, in congregational singing, the effect leaves much to be desired if the singers listen to each other rather than to the organ, which is there to lead the voices. Each one's desire should be to keep in strict unison with the organ, and if all accomplished this, the hymn would sound as if sung by one voice. Sometimes one tries only to sing in time with his neighbor, who may be singing out of time; another is so absorbed in the words that he forgets to keep time with the organist. In concerted music, that orchestra alone is effective whose members keep their attention riveted on the conductor. So it is with our thinking: it needs to be done under the leadership of divine Mind, and no other. Our text-book enjoins us to "hold thought steadfastly to the enduring, the good, and the true" (Science and Health, p. 261); and Jesus said of his true followers: "A stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers. ... I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine."

The so-called carnal mind constantly seeks to divert our attention from the one divine Mind, and in the measure in which it succeeds, the ever-ready counsel of the "still small voice" of Truth is lost to us. Excessive criticism or excessive praise of another may mean that we are removing our gaze from the spiritual and straying into the by-paths of material belief, accepting lower standards, following misleading advice, collecting a lot of conflicting human opinions and trying to get order out of what must always be chaos. There is no disorder save in what is called mortal mind; there is no absolute order save in the divine Mind. Human beings have only opinions to offer, whether about truth or error, whereas the Father-Mind gives us facts, and moreover gives to each one of us the same facts, so that in drawing us to itself, it is also drawing us nearer to each other.

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