Article September 11, 1920 Issue

"What is truth?"

ANNE H. THOMAS

Pilate's question, "What is truth?" has come down through the centuries, and the Pilates of to-day, immersed in materiality, are asking the same question, all unconscious that, as in the experience of Jesus, it is to-day being answered practically through demonstration,—through the reformation of the sinner, the healing of the sick, yes, and the raising of the dead. Many have expressed the wish that Pilate had waited for Jesus to answer his momentous question, but what other answer could Jesus give than the one he had given on so many occasions to those who had ears to hear and eyes to see,—the one Christian Science is giving to-day in the solution of problems of every name and nature? Jesus said, "To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth." When he multiplied the loaves and fishes he bore witness unto the truth about lack; namely, that supply is infinite and Mind is its source. Again, when he raised Jairus' daughter and Lazarus from the dead, did he not bear witness unto the truth that Life is omnipresent, is spiritual, is God, and that death is the suppositional opposite, a lie to be destroyed? Jesus was hourly answering Pilate's question, not with words, but with works. Did he not answer John's question, "Art thou he that should come? or look we for another?" by recounting his works, as recorded in Luke's gospel? To John's disciples he said, "Go your way, and tell John what things ye have seen and heard; how that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the poor the gospel is preached."

Mary Baker Eddy, the revelator of Christian Science, was for years, and is to-day answering, through the written word, Pilate's question for this age, but few comprehend her answer, and comparatively few to-day are on every occasion, as did Jesus, exchanging false beliefs for spiritual ideas and thereby answering practically hungering humanity's question, "What is truth?"—what is the truth about this specific lie? Is not the temptation rather first to admit the lie and then to ask some one, "What thought shall I hold?" when on the contrary we should be so at one with Truth, the divine Mind, God, as to reflect instantly the true or spiritual idea about which the carnal mind is endeavoring to deceive us with its lying arguments and suggestions?

Truth being omnipresent, the true or saving idea must necessarily be ever present, capable of perception and demonstration. Christian Science teaches that the truth or true idea about any erroneous condition or circumstance is the savior from it. The true, or saving, idea active in individual consciousness destroys the false belief. What is the truth about two times two equals five? Is it not four? What is the truth about death? Is it not Life? Then follows, What is Life? What is the truth about Life? Is it not that God is Life and that God is the Life of man? There is but one Life, one God. There is but one truth about every lie. Then in every instance of evil belief we can ask ourselves the same question,—What is the truth about it?—and if honest, earnest, sincere students of Christian Science we can always answer with scientific certainty, for there is never more than one right or true answer, and we do not have to create it, for it is the truth and already exists in Mind. All we need to do is to purify our thinking and listen for the still, small voice of Truth, and God, Truth, will—does—supply the answer whenever we need to know it in any and every specific instance. This is what is meant when in our Wednesday evening meetings we hear a testifier say, "I declared the truth." Truth is God; the truth is that which is true about God, spiritual man, and the spiritual universe. Truth being infinite is expressed in an infinity of ideas. The truth is continually unfolding to individual consciousness and will continue to unfold throughout all eternity as idea, and in the degree that individual or human consciousness is purified will it be receptive of the Christ-idea.

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