Article March 5, 1927 Issue

Out of the Depths

MARTHA SUTTON THOMPSON

He who aspires to self-government and final demonstration of eternal life, by conforming to divine laws, soon learns that spiritual understanding is the only intelligent basis of procedure and achievement, and that the nonintelligence of mere belief is as the shifting sand, baseless and without the ability to win success. Not discerning the actual nature of either good or evil, the so-called human mind, unaided by divine Science, claims to be intelligent and controlling. But such is the knowledge upon which divine wisdom pronounced the sentence, "Thou shalt surely die." This edict refers to the sinner's burial in the darkness of error. It also prophesies the death—the utter obliteration—of error and sin.

The belief that two fundamentally opposing factors, good and evil, have intelligence, activity, and power keeps mortals in a state of unrest, fear, and uncertainty. Which will win? is the constant query. And since each mortal, in a measure and unconsciously, externalizes his thoughts, he invites success or defeat in proportion to the preponderance of belief in the operation of good or of evil. Indeed, though he may confidently expect success, deep down in his consciousness lies a conviction that something might "happen" to bring disaster; and frequently this something does appear to occur.

The underlying error is that a mortal has not that conception of fixed, infallible Principle which, if conformed to, would govern his thought and action, and the results they produce. Seeming to have two conflicting bases, he practically has none; and consequently he may be dragged to the depths of impoverishment, sin, and suffering without the knowledge of a divine law whereby to extricate himself. Perhaps his strongest hope is that he has a "chance" to struggle out. But certain deliverance awaits him only in the oncoming light of the Soul-inspired teachings of Jesus and the revelation of Christian Science given Mrs. Eddy, which sets forth the scientific system of Christianity, expounding Principle as Mind, God, verifying the Scriptural text: "I am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me: that they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the Lord, and there is none else."

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