Editorial March 5, 1921 Issue

We Are All Beginners

Gustavus S. Paine

In one sense, no one has yet done more than begin to understand and demonstrate Christian Science. Infinite Principle actually is infinite, and expresses itself without limit. Therefore the true discernment and proof of Principle must be the work of eternity and not merely of any limited period of time. The moment a man congratulates himself complacently on his own superior understanding of Christian Science, that moment is he standing still, satisfied with the mists of mortal belief. Human self-satisfaction is altogether a delusion, for the only true sufficiency is of God, as Paul says, and is experienced just in proportion as the mortal illusion of selfhood vanishes in the presence of the one I AM, spiritually reflected by the veritable man whose whole existence is quite apart from suppositional mortality. On page 3 of Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy points out that "the Divine Being must be reflected by man,—else man is not the image and likeness of the patient, tender, and true, the One 'altogether lovely; but to understand God is the work of eternity, and demands absolute consecration of thought, energy, and desire."

When a man feels over and over again "the times of refreshing" which "come from the presence of the Lord," he is bound to realize something of what it means to be continually an enthusiastic beginner in the understanding and practice of Principle. The unceasing freshness of right desire is, of course, what must turn one to the trie fulfillment as eternally now. The accomplished fact which God knows is always the spiritual idea, which is the reality of man, and never any mortal sense of things. Immortal activity is the divine creation that is finished, though it ceaselessly unfolds because of its unlimited noture and source. Every student of Christian Science, whether he considers that he has been studying for a long or a short time, is simply beginning to comprehend the essence of this true creation. His experience is improved by this comprehension inasmuch as the limitations of supposed mortality give way to it.

The belief in mortal mind and in all mortality is always unsatisfactory. Becoming dissatisfied with mortal mind, a man must sooner or later turn away from its futility. All there is to turn to, then, is divine Principle as revealed through Christian Science. As this turning in the right direction goes on, the nothingness of mortal mind and its beliefs is demonstrated, while the allness of the divine Mind and its idea is proved to be the reality of existence. Mrs. Eddy says, on page 252 of Science and Health, "When false human beliefs learn even a little of their own falsity, they begin to disappear." Each one relying on Principle can rejoice in this beginning, for it indicates that he is indeed proving something of the goodness of good as truly invigorating, through replacing suppositional infirmities of body or of human man motives the strength of divine intelligence. This is the refreshing which continuously comes from the omnipresence of divine Love.

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