Article August 26, 1922 Issue

Thinking

WILLIAM HALE COOMBER

Mrs. Eddy has written in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 269), "Metaphysics resolves things into thoughts, and exchanges the objects of sense for the ideas of Soul." From this it is deduced in Christian Science that man is not a material being with a mind within; but is the image and likeness of God, Mind. It is mentality which governs the body; and not the body which controls the thought. So, what we think is a most vital consideration in the question of our health, our happiness, and, indeed, of our whole outlook on existence.

"As he thinketh in his heart, so is he," we read in Proverbs. Our thoughts are our companions at all times; and without thought no physical action of any sort can take place. On page 210 of "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany," Mrs. Eddy writes, "Keep your minds so filled with Truth and Love, that sin, disease, and death cannot enter them." Such thoughts are always under the protection of God, divine Truth and Love. Our Leader, in her writings, has conferred a priceless boon on humanity by teaching what to think and how to think; by revealing the true idea of man and his relationship with God, divine Mind; and also how to overcome and guard against evil thoughts through this understanding. Right thinking, with the resultant right doing, must be the aim and desire of the student of Christian Science at all times.

Christian Science teaches us how to overcome disease: first, by seeing the mental nature of disease; and, second, by grasping our relationship with the divine Mind and thinking only God's thoughts. When we understand how thinking influences our life and experience, we shall be careful lest unworthy thoughts find place and lodgment in our mentality. As mentality improves and is purified, so will outward circumstances express more harmony; thus teaching the student to appreciate Jesus' words, "The kingdom of God is within you," and Mrs. Eddy's statement that heaven, or the kingdom of God, "is not a locality, but a divine state of Mind in which all the manifestations of Mind are harmonious and immortal" (Science and Health, p. 291). We have to think our way into heaven gradually, but surely and irresistibly; and this is truly working out one's own salvation.

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