Article July 5, 1913 Issue

PRESENCE OF MIND

M. G. KAINS, M.S.

In the business world, devices in great variety have been adopted to protect life and property. Many of them are ingenious, many simple, and probably the majority of them are effective within prescribed and therefore restricted limits; but probably, if the facts were known, their presence has not invariably proved efficacious. Not that the fault is necessarily due to their failure to operate, but that their proper use depends upon presence of mind on the part of the people who use them.

This phrase, "presence of mind," glides very glibly from the tongue, but how little does it mean in many cases, most cases! To the majority of people it simply means that in a period of stress one must not lose his head, but must keep his wits about him; that is, he must think clearly enough and act quickly enough to avoid unfortunate consequences. By reversal, the absence of mind, the inability to think clearly and act quickly, may be as productive of serious consequences as presence of body. This is an outline of the popular idea of presence of mind. It is limited to the person acting, or failing to act, under conditions of more or less stress; in a word, it looks upon each person as possessed of self-power which may be lost or retained according to the exercise of will or command over himself.

To the Christian Scientist the phrase has a far higher, broader, deeper significance, and better yet, it has a much more positive, definite application. The Christian Scientist realizes this significance by recognizing Mind as another name for God. Because God is infinite, He must be ever present, consequently there must be, always and everywhere, presence of Mind, God. On this basis there is, there can be, no such thing as personal or self-power, as is believed to be the case in the former instance. Christian Science emphatically declares: "There is no power apart from God. Omnipotence has all-power, and to acknowledge any other power is to dishonor God" (Science and Health, p. 228). The wonderful significance and utility of this statement is evidenced by countless cases of protection where the phrase "presence of mind" in its lower or human significance, as first outlined above, does not and cannot apply, because no degree of such presence of mind can account for the safety which those who realize the presence and protection of God have experienced in passing through calamities. Let suffice a single instance, selected at random from a long and steadily lengthening list.

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