Article February 13, 1915 Issue

Abiding in Good

LUCY HAYS EASTMAN

Mrs. Eddy has given us this great truism: "There is but one way of doing good, and that is to do it! There is but one way of being good, and that is to be good!" (Retrospection and Introspection, p. 86.) Manifestly, we cannot be anything without being in some state of consciousness. To express good, then, is to abide in the consciousness of good, whence we look out upon man and the universe with eyes that behold only perfection. Through the inspiration of this vision we come to be and to do good in the relative human experience as involuntarily and naturally as the rays of light express the sun and give forth its warmth.

To abide in good is not to talk about it either abstractly or concretely, not to moralize or theorize over it, nor to have a blind faith in it or human opinions about it. The child would cease to be a child were he conscious of his innocence, were he to analyze and comment upon it or to think of it as a personal possession. Because he is dwelling in the child-consciousness, which is always pure and innocent, he involuntarily expresses all the qualities of that state of consciousness. To abide in good is to acquire such a godlike consciousness that there remains no sense whereby to cognize evil. No matter how clear a view we may perceive of good, or how much we may preach it and individualize it, if we are at the same time entertaining concepts of evil, we are not yet abiding in good; we are but dimly regarding it from an outside standpoint.

Once within the consciousness of good, however, we see and feel its actual substance with the spiritual senses, with the consecrated heart, the single eye, as tangibly and naturally as we think we see and feel what is called matter. "To feel" means to experience, to fix deeply in mind; thus we feel with mind as well as think with mind. Perhaps we perceive certain truths afar off and readily accept them, but we feel their substance only as they become so deeply fixed within our hearts that we experience their touch in uplifted thought. Likewise with good, we feel its touch as naturally as we perceive its worth, if we have learned how to use the spiritual senses. With these senses we lay hold upon the very substance of wisdom, purity, and health, perceive their radiation, and hear the rhythm of their harmony.

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