Article June 17, 1911 Issue

THOUGHTS FOR THE BEGINNER

JENNIE IRENE BLATCHLEY.

It is frequently the case that the beginner in the study of Christian Science, having not yet risen to that spiritual understanding which will later prove to him that "the only real senses of man are spiritual, emanating from divine Mind" (Science and Health, p. 284), is likely to ask in the early days of earnest seeking questions similar to the following: If the structural life of material man is not the manifestation of God, if the physical senses afford no proof of God, then how am I to know God? What proof have I of God's immanence? These questions are quite legitimate in view of the fact that the material concept of God which this student formerly held has to his growing spiritual consciousness been found of little value, and that his, as yet, brief awakening to things spiritual has given him little basis from which to form new concepts. These questions are asked with sincerity, and the seeker should be pointed to the satisfying answers which are to be found in the teachings of Christian Science.

Should you ask this "seeker of the light," "Do the beauties of nature come by chance?" although young in spiritual understanding, he will at once reply, "By no means. There must be intelligence as the cause of all that is beautiful in nature." He is quite right, and it is this intelligence or cause which in Christian Science is called Mind, God, good. Should you again ask, "How long, do you think, will this intelligence or Mind exist?" he will at once reply, "Forever." But all this outdoor life which is a delight to his material senses will soon perish. Then the senses evidence cannot be of God's creating, for God's creation, made in His image and likeness, is eternal, undying, the same always. It is the intelligence or Mind which the varied beauties of nature manifest or reflect, that is the real, the eternal. God is not in the thrush's song, but the song reflects the divine attribute of harmony. So is it with all nature. The symmetry and grace of the elm tree, the stateliness of the pine, the endurance of the solid rock beneath the soil, the silence manifested in nature's growth, the constancy of the upward-playing fountain,—all these, being attributes of the creator of all that is eternal, are themselves the unchanging and eternal ideas of Mind. The objects of nature which are presented to us by the material senses are temporal, fleeting, but the things of God which they may symbolize to awakening thought, are eternal.

As the beginner in the study of the spiritual comes to see how it is that Mind, God, creates the beauties of nature, he will admit that God is good. As he progresses in the study of the Christian Science text-book and of the Bible, he will see that the term good as here used means vastly more than a mere quality; that it conveys an abstract idea quite apart from any material object. Gradually the thought, God is good, will mean to him, God is all goodness; and he will awake to the great fact that in proportion as he lives goodness, as he manifests goodness in his daily thoughts and their resulting actions, in that proportion is he living close to God, in that degree is he having his part in the great whole, the unity or oneness of God.

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