Editorial September 24, 1921 Issue

Stillness

Gustavus S. Paine

Amid the noise and hurry of the city one may long for the quiet of the mountains or the forest, but in the physical solitude far from railroads and people one may yearn for the life of the city. Either such desire comes from a reliance on the mortal senses which, in Christian Science, must be replaced by the truly active composure of the divine Mind regardless of earthly circumstances. To "be still, and know that I am God" is to accept infinite Mind as the ever present I am which expresses itself with vigor, sureness, and satisfaction here and now in spite of any jangle of unrelated incidents or noises. The real man, the manifestation of the one I am is calm and buoyant because he is wholly attentive to the true cause. It is impossible to be affected by what does not exist in the realm of infinite Mind where there is the all-sufficient reality of whatever counterfeit the material senses perceive. In fact there is absolutely nothing beyond the allness of Principle and its spiritual expression.

Spiritual stillness is neither inaction nor a state of what is ordinarily called concentration, for the mere seeking to center human thought on certain points is belief in mortal mind as power and not the free sureness of right reasoning that expresses divine intelligence. The very belief that human thought can be concentrated is a belief of intense limitation, the suppositional opposite of infinite Mind manifesting itself infinitely as spiritual idea. Therefore the giving of one's whole attention to Principle and its idea is immensely more than an attempt to center human thought on human concepts. Consecration is a word with a much broader meaning than concentration, which is a term used very little in Christian Science. Consecration to Principle is free, orderly, and energetic, with no taint of human emotionalism or intensity.

If a man in his study of Christian Science finds it difficult at any time to follow the meaning in what he is reading or to reason out for himself the application of the truth to some problem, it is well for him to awaken then and there to the fact that he cares not what mortal mind may suppose itself to be thinking, because he knows that the one Mind is ever conscious of spiritual efficiency. The recognition of this fact brings him back at once from the wanderings of mortal illusion to the solid reality. Though the infinity of the divine Mind and its idea may seem to be counterfeited in multifarious cross currents of human thought, the truth is always that infinite intelligence is all that is really conscious. The truth is true even while mortal mind seems to wander; so sooner or later all the futility of error must subside in the presence of the infinite actuality.

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