Article March 15, 1913 Issue

MENTAL DEFICIT

CLARENCE W. CHADWICK.

The red ink item of the trial balance testifies to a financial shortage. It is something that the business man never likes to see, and he at once busies humself to discover and to correct the cause. He works diligently and persistently to turn the scales in the opposite direction, so as to show a balance on the side of profit instead of loss; and when this has been accomplished he is looked upon as successful.

So he may be from the material point of view, but what of mental conditions? Has this sober-headed business man stopped to consider his obligations to the Giver of all good? to balance his account with God, the infinite all-inclusive Mind of the universe? Has he stopped long enough to ascertain that there is a red ink item opposite his name just so long as he fails to acquaint himself with God? that there is, in other words, a mental deficit for which he alone is responsible and which he alone can liquidate? This mental deficit is chargeable to all mortals until they turn away from matter to Spirit or Mind as the sum and substance of being. Their belief in matter, whether as good or bad, indicates a mental lack, "for to be carnally [materially] minded is death." The psalmist must have realized this when he said, "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me."

Our revered Leader says: "Material and temporal thoughts are human, involving error, and since God, Spirit, is the only cause, they lack a divine cause" (Science and Health, p. 286). The mentality of a mortal is not fully equipped for usefulness until it has been corrected by the understanding of divine Truth and, rejecting the evidence of the physical senses, is in harmonious accord with spiritual sense, which always judges righteous judgment. God's correction does not rob a mortal of his mind, rather does it acquaint him with the great metaphysical fact that God is the one infinite Mind or intelligence of the universe, and that for him to lay claim to any other mind, a so-called mind that can be conscious of both good and evil, is to present a woeful mental lack, a lack which all the wisdom of the world is powerless to supply. What the world calls mind is little else than a counterfeit, a mortal or carnal mentality which knows not what Mind really is. Truth's correction of this material mentality infuses into consciousness a degree of spiritual activity which is soon found to be the savior from all that is unlike God. Were it not for this influx of spirituality, even their improved mentality could never save men from belief in sin, disease, and death, for the mortal or carnal mentality is incapable of knowing anything that is spiritually true. It always shows a balance on the wrong side. Paradoxical as it may seem, it is an "unbalanced mind" with no ability ever to become balanced; hence its need of a savior.

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