Editorial May 29, 1920 Issue

The Sure Basis

Gustavus S. Paine

Of what can one be really sure? In time of trouble or in time of calm, people of all sorts find themselves asking this question. To turn to matter for an answer is in vain. Who, indeed, truly knows that there is such a thing as matter? Apart from what the mortal senses would claim, there is no semblance, even, of proof that matter is real. The human senses, of course, give no firm basis on which to reason. So often are they fooled that sooner or later one must conclude not to rely on them in any case but to seek instead, quite aside from them, the whole truth which they would try to distort and reverse. What is called knowledge gained through research by means of these supposed senses cannot be exact or true. It all, therefore, must be replaced by the surety of divine Science—Christian Science, which springs from the one Mind alone and can be denied by no mortal sense of things.

To the one who seems attacked by disease, either acute or chronic, a drug or serum can afford no certain relief. Few would pretend that any of the most modern methods of caring for the sick will result in perfect health. How could these methods, when true health is wholeness of Mind expressed, not a mere phase of a belief in matter? So, in turning to Christian Science, the seeker for speedy and complete healing must be glad first of all that he has Mind to depend on. Life, or Mind itself, is the one sure cause for all real action. This each one may rejoice in for himself. No one needs to be told by some one else that he is alive. For his very being, there must be some present source, and this is simply Spirit, Mind, God. Just to know this is indeed good and wholesome.

Tired of the turmoil of mortal seeming, the many are glad to turn to God. Yet creeds and dogmas that always were false, because based on supposed matter, never can suffice to show what God is. A false belief about God cannot take the place of the one Mind which can be proved in daily action to be the cause for right action. Over and over again the sincere seeker finds any mortal sense of formal worship to be lacking. No matter how stately or ancient a mere form may have seemed, it is by no means a rock on which truly to stand. Only those who would be inert, torpid, could ever seem content with less than the alert doing of the boundless divine Life which is Mind or Spirit. To know that the one Mind governs man in the divine likeness requires awake living always. From the extreme of belief in either the pains or the pleasures of the mortal senses, one needs to turn wholly to the endless means of joy in Spirit alone, not to the other extreme of void usage. What is vital is the thorough knowing and proving that the divine Mind does produce right action here and now, despite any former seeming.

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