Editorial May 18, 1929 Issue

"Let"

Albert F. Gilmore

Students of Christian metaphysics find great profit in the close scrutiny of little words. Sometimes a word apparently of little consequence because of its brevity, has a meaning so important that the significance of a passage is quite dependent upon it. Such a word is "let," which occurs with a frequency in both the Bible and Mrs. Eddy's writings that justifies a careful inquiry as to its significance and use.

In exhorting the Christians at Philippi to unity and humility, Paul placed before them the perfect example of Christ Jesus to which their lives should conform in these words: "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." Note the form of the Apostle's admonition! Let "this mind be in you." He did not ask them to do something of themselves, to perform some notable act or to accept some specific doctrine. Rather did he exhort them to permit themselves to be acted upon, through letting the Mind of Christ, the spiritual ideal of God, be manifest in them. How important a part does the word "let" here play!

The meaning of the passage, then, is, Permit or suffer the Christ, Truth, which is always waiting at the portals of thought, to enter and determine our mental state. To let the Mind of Christ be in us is to permit spiritual Truth to occupy thought, whereby thinking is changed from a material to a spiritual basis. The process requires no overt act; but, rather, when the senses are stilled, the admission of the Christ, Truth, into our thought, until its gracious presence shall have transformed consciousness, and reality takes the place of erroneous thinking. In the light of this reasoning, how significant becomes the little word!

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