Article May 10, 1913 Issue

RIGHT CONSCIOUSNESS

A. E. JENKINS.

When we first begin to work in Christian Science, we find a task confronting us which requires unbounded patience and persistence, the task of replacing the slovenly, illogical, confused, sinful thoughts and thinking processes of the carnal mind, by the orderly, logical, right thinking of divine Mind. When we begin to be interested in Christian Science, we read the inspiring statements of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy, and we are flooded with a sense of joy and peace. Then we learn that this mental condition, though natural and constant in the real man, has to be demonstrated gradually by mankind. Little by little we begin to challenge mortal mind's thought processes, gaging them by the standard which Christian Science has given us, the activities of divine Mind, with which we day by day become more familiar through a study of the Bible in the light which Christian Science throws upon it.

The task which confronts us is not a discouraging one, for we are not trying to change the mortal mentality from evil to good, which is an impossible feat; we are only taking possession of man's true mentality. Mortal mind is composed wholly of erroneous thoughts and thought processes which can never be improved, but which must be gradually replaced by true thoughts and thought processes. In the eighth chapter of Paul's epistle to the Romans, we read that the carnal or mortal mind "is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be;" but as we cast out the evil thoughts, replace the counterfeit by the real, then true thoughts take control of the situation and bring into subjection the false thoughts of sin, sickness, and death which may still seem to be in evidence, and our mental habitation begins to be better regulated.

For example: Suppose we get up in the morning with a confused and discouraged sense of a crowded day ahead. If we have begun to be alert and on our guard, we look that state of consciousness squarely in the face and measure it by our new standard of right thinking. Knowing that the thinking of the one divine Mind results always in harmony, order, joy, and peace, we see at once that this disorderly, unhappy thinking is not, scientifically speaking, thinking at all; it is illegitimate, and we begin to replace it. According to Christian Science, day stands for unfoldment (Science and Health, p. 584). Then when we wake to a new day, we are at the standpoint of unfoldment, the unfoldment of God, Love, Truth, Life, and its harmonious activity.

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