The true meeting is never really of persons. That spiritual activity which makes up man in the image and likeness of God is forever present with its cause, with divine intelligence. In other words, Mind and its idea are always together. This is the eternal meeting. As Mrs. Eddy says on page 131 of "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany," "Where God is we can meet, and and where God is we can never part." By looking wholly to Principle manifest, one finds himself in unity with all that really is, since whatever is not of Principle is nothing. The only being together, therefore, consists in the infinite oneness of the divine Mind in all the variety of its manifestation. To know this is a constant inspiration.

At a time of political conventions, for instance, it is well for each participant, indeed for each citizen or onlooker even, to rejoice that he is dealing wholly with intelligence expressed, no matter what may seem to be. In the midst of the crowd, the one who is sure that Principle alone is governing has plenty to do. Any seeming mortal turmoil is an amusing illusion. All the while that it is supposed to be so intense, the one divine consciousness righteously active is the reality. Infinite Mind is all that has power to act. So whatever action may be apparent must be taken as an opportunity for seeing what God truly does know. Certainly the divine Love which is Principle produces only continuous unfoldment, with least element of destruction. For the spiritual democracy, which is the reliance of all together on Principle the whole of experience must be found as happy activity in infinite Mind, apart from any supposition of matter.

When a crowd is thought of as a mass of physical bodies each with a small mind that is more or less out of harmony with every other small mind, there may indeed seem small prospect that it will prove to have any effective unity of purpose. That is why so many political conventions have seemed excited in their attempt at nominations and compromises. The very belief in matter as animated is the error in premise that leads to error in every conclusion. Why should a crowd be supposed capable of doing hysterically, in many instances, what no individual reasoning alone and soberly would think of doing? Such a belief is the delusion that there may be an accumulation of nothingness with a constant accretion of force. Nothing, however, can never be more than nothing. The fact is that divine intelligence is the only really animating power. What infinite Mind animates is always idea, never matter. Knowing this, one is calm and sure of Principle in the midst of any seeming.

The way of progress in the true democracy is not a mere attempt at some sort of a convergence of human theories and policies. To reconcile wrong with right or even wrong with wrong is impossible. Only as error subsides before Truth manifest is harmonious unfoldment demonstrated. The true idea is already present without limit in the one divine consciousness. Right activity converges only toward perfect intelligence, is inseparable from intelligence. On page 10 of "Unity of Good" Mrs. Eddy says: "Spiritual phenomena never converge toward aught but infinite Deity. Their gradations are spiritual and divine; they cannot collapse, or lapse into their opposites, for God is their divine Principle. They live, because He lives; and they are eternally perfect, because He is perfect, and governs them in the Truth of divine Science, whereof God is the Alpha and Omega, the centre and circumference." The true course is the phenomenon of spiritual good, of which any human ways and means at the best are but the suppositional counterfeit. As the counterfeit gives way before the genuine, the whole majesty of spiritual government stands forth intact.

In a political convention or campaign, therefore, it behooves each alert citizen or observer to know that the only real platform must be activity in strict accord with Principle. What really is constructive and true is and always has been eternal. The so-called mesmerism of the crowd has no power to affect in the slightest the actual operation of Principle. No supposed personal magnetism could possibly sway infinite Mind and its idea or swerve true unfoldment from its inevitable course. Determined to do only what divine intelligence does, one is firm on the platform of righteousness. With all patience and charity, however, each one can rejoice that this way of doing is infinite.

The real point of convergence in political or governmental as in church activity must be the understanding that the will of Principle must be done. On page 22 of "Pulpit and Press" Mrs. Eddy says: "All Christian churches have one bond of unity, one nucleus or point of convergence, one prayer,—the Lord's Prayer. It is matter for rejoicing that we unite in love, and in this sacred petition with every praying assembly on earth,—'Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.'" In proportion as all together know that there is one Principle to be expressed in all experience, it is proved that the true treaty of peace is consummated, industry continues in boundless unfoldment, spiritual prosperity is realized, and success of all sorts is insured. This is the healing which each one must demonstrate for himself by depending wholly upon the divine Mind, and not on any material sense of things. In the one infinite consciousness, it is indeed true that "mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven. Yea, the Lord shall give that which is good; and our land shall yield her increase. Righteousness shall go before him; and shall set us in the way of his steps."

Gustavus S. Paine.