Editorial April 16, 1921 Issue

The Unlimited Idea

Gustavus S. Paine

PEOPLE sometimes seem afraid to give up their limitations for the unlimited truth. Their main fear is that they will lose something. Christian Science, however, takes nothing real away from any one, but always gives the fullness of true good. Actual good is divine Principle expressed. It is infinite in vigor and variety, for it proceeds from infinite Mind. Once a man perceives this, he cannot be afraid of it nor be reluctant to accept it as the only experience to be desired. The goodness which consists in manifesting Principle is not a drab and dreary existence of repressed activity. To be genuinely good, living must be glad with the spiritual animation of the divine consciousness. The real vitality is controlled in perfect order by one intelligence. This is the unlimited truth of being.

Christian Science shows that immortality, which is the only real living now and always, is entirely spiritual. Immortal man lives as idea in the divine Mind, altogether untouched by any dream of materiality. If a man will but stop to think what is most worth while, he must recognize that it is divine intelligence itself, which is far more than human intellect. The quality of intelligence is what constitutes spirituality. Existence as idea manifesting intelligence is not illusive or visionary. Idea is the reality of living. Idea is wholly spiritual and quite unlike any human concepts. The unlimited is necessarily altogether different from a limited mortal sense of things, even though mortal belief in all its aspects counterfeits the truth. Immortal idea, in order to be unlimited, must be the unified expression of infinite Mind. This unified idea is what must replace any supposition of discord, whether physical, moral, or of any other sort. The divine Mind, being infinite, must be spiritually expressed in just the right way to give the true idea in place of any seeming human conditions whatever.

This reasoning is fundamental in Christian Science. Yet it need not be stated in just these words, for the proper statement and interpretation of the truth are boundless. When one turns to the truth and finds that it heals the inharmony from which he has seemed to be suffering, he is not concerned mainly with words. He need not, however, be afraid of any words that may be used to express the truth. The practice of Christian Science is entirely unlike speculative philosophy. The understanding that divine Principle governs man and maintains joyous order is the knowing of divine Love. This understanding is tangible, practical, and energetic. It actually heals. All sorts of words, both short and long, simple or conveying careful distinctions, may be used for the explanation of the healing truth. The basis of the explanation must be so plain that even a child can grasp it and use it. One divine Mind, Principle, or Love, is the sole cause and causes only good. This is the fact which all must sooner or later accept and prove for themselves.

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