Editorial October 16, 1920 Issue

Coincidence

Gustavus S. Paine with contributions from David Francis Thompson

What Christian Science teaches must unfold eternally because it is infinite in its import. It need not seem strange, then, if one finds himself questioning frequently the statements of divine metaphysics, as he begins the study, for Christian Science teaches nothing less than the entirety of infinite Principle. For every right question, it has the right answer. This answer, the spiritual fact which the divine Mind knows, is demonstrably in accord with both reason and revelation. Unquestioning acceptance of whatever is told to one is never commendable. As Mr. Thomas Nelson Page said in his address before the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Harvard University this year, "Accept no man's ipse dixit. Accept only as it commends itself to you, to your reason and to your instinct. Inform yourselves, but think for yourselves."

True instinct or impulse is, of course, the propulsion of perfect divine cause and not any supposedly physical reaction or innate propensity of a so-called human mind. The fact is that, since there is but one spiritual Mind producing all actual being, there is no human or mortal mind to have any propensities whatever. The supposition that a mortal mentality, counterfeiting the all-inclusive immortal Mind, could ever cause anything is absurd. There can never be more than all, and immortal Mind with its idea is proved in Christian Science to be all, leaving no possibility for an opposite. This true Mind is the source of the only real action, and allows no element of chance or mischance in the operation of its effect. The whole operation of Mind is neither supernatural nor mysterious in any way, but is altogether comprehensible in its rational order.

The student of Christian Science soon learns, therefore, that the good which he experiences is not merely fortuitous. The facts of real existence are arranged by divine Principle. One who informs himself as to what these are and reasons for himself as to why they manifest Principle, cannot believe that their arrangement in order for the universal good is ever what is ordinarily termed a coincidence, or happening. Spiritual phenomena simply appear together in harmony, because idea is always harmonious in all the variety of its expression. In the last analysis, moreover, idea is one, even though called by all sorts of convenient names. Thus it is inevitable for the unfoldment of good to be exactly right, with every detail coordinate with its Principle. The indivisible harmony of spiritual action is required by its source to continue forever in perfect concord.

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