Article May 25, 1912 Issue

UNLABORED MENTAL WORK

MARTHA SUTTON THOMPSON.

The truths of divine Science are exact and unchangeable, and this fact kept in view is a very present help in time of trouble. Furthermore, the statements of Truth are natural and, to the spiritually inclined, easily comprehended. To their sense it is error that is complicated, obscure, and baffling. It is the sense of error which causes our struggles in all mental work. But we must watch the deceiver that it does not make us believe that we are struggling with something real and that the truth which Jesus declared would set us free is eluding us.

To illustrate: to comprehend that infinite Mind governs all and governs harmoniously is no task; in fact it is as self-evident as that one and one are two, and we never find ourselves repeating this over and over and thinking of it very hard in order to realize it. We understand that it is so and we know that the fact can never change and that any benefit we can derive, or any benefit we expect to derive, from the fact that one and one are two is as surely ours as though we had already experienced it. For instance, if we owe A two dollars and B and C each owes us one dollar, we positively know that we have owing to us just enough money from these sources to pay A. We do not iterate and reiterate this fact, but rest assured in the truth of our understanding of the facts, the unchangeableness of mathematics. We never have spasms of fear that we shall not realize the truth of the matter and tell A that we have not sufficient "in sight" to pay him and so get into trouble with him. No, no; this never happens. We know the truth of mathematics can never be reversed, that it can never relapse.

In working out the problems of life, however, where error becomes malicious because we strike at its very so-called existence, we find ourselves thinking and rethinking, very determinedly, that infinite Mind does govern all; that the law of God does govern His child absolutely, and so on. Why do we do this? Is it because we have any doubt of the infinitude, omnipotence, and omnipresence of good and its laws? No; but it is always because we are wrestling with the seeming realism of the opposite error. We are striving to obliterate the erroneous sense with the realization of the truth declared. But what is realization? It is knowing; and the trouble sometimes is that we are striving to make carnal sense realize or know, while the fact remains that spiritual perception alone knows and realizes spiritual truth.

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