Article June 17, 1911 Issue

THE EDUCATION OF HUMAN SENSE

LOUISE K. FLEMING, A.M.

Nothing , perhaps, furnishes a closer analogy to the activity of Christian Science practice than mathematics. To one whose work has accustomed him to the leading of young students over the rough places in mathematics, solving problems, correcting errors, replacing mistaken beliefs with the proper rule, pointing out an unvarying order, and basing all operations upon a changeless law, this comparison is full of meaning and helpfulness. In the case of the student of mathematics, erroneous results follow the ignorance or misapprehension of the rule involved, and no less surely, in the case of the student of life's activities, do discordant results follow a mistaken sense of law. In one case, if the student fails to see his mistake, the teacher supplies the correct rule; in the other the practitioner shows the right application of law; and in both cases harmony is the result.

How often a boy goes to his teacher, discouraged and defeated, with the statement, "I can't get the right answer," displaying a manifestly incorrect result, or perhaps merely a jumble of figures. Following out his work, the teacher soon discovers the mistake. "What is eight times seven?" is asked; "you thought it was fifty-four." The uncovering of the error may be enough to give him the start he requires; but the problem is not yet solved; right thinking is necessary from that point on in order to gain the final answer. Perhaps the difficulty is not so easily overcome; the mistake may involve some law not clearly understood and the boy may not see at once that he has been in error. Then there must follow a careful explanation of the law, its basic requirement, and the results, before he can apply it to the example in question. Then, as before, right thinking must bring the right result.

In like manner, the disheartened man, unable to work out his problem in life, goes to the practitioner of Christian Science. He may be sick; or perhaps his business affairs are discordant, or he may have suffered loss or bereavement,—whatever his difficulty it is due in some way to wrong thinking, just as was the boy's mistake in mathematics, for right thinking always produces harmony. Following out his thought, the practitioner soon detects the error. It may be only a slight slip, and then, like the boy's mistake in the multiplication table, it is at once recognized and corrected, an the problem harmoniously solved. But oftener there is a misapprehension of basic laws. Then must the divine Principle of the universe be pointed out, and an explanation of the unvarying law in its application to the problem in hand must follow, for on the basis of divine Principle and its idea, "perfect God and perfect man" (Science and Health, p. 259), all human difficulties are solved.

Send a comment to the editors

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit

THE EDUCATION OF HUMAN SENSE

We'd love to hear from you!

Sign up for unlimited access