Article June 7, 1930 Issue

Safety in True Thinking

LESTER B. MC COUN

It is difficult to convey in words the gratitude which Christian Scientists feel toward Mrs. Eddy for the marvelous understanding and faithfulness she displayed in effectively revealing, by word and works, that God is good and is unopposed by any evil power. Besides heartfelt gratitude for their more certain understanding of God, Christian Scientists are equally grateful to her for their better understanding of their real spiritual selves as God's spiritual reflection, not subordinate to sin or disease in any form. While to some extent appreciative of the good accomplished by Mrs. Eddy, the world has not yet properly recognized the value of her investigation and treatment of that which is unlike God. If one intelligently accepts our Leader's explanations regarding God, man, and mortal mind, so called, all of which are in spiritual accord with Christ Jesus' words and works, he will know how to keep out of his consciousness the fearsome suggestions of mortal sense, and will never think that a lie has power merely because someone believes it.

God and His creation constitute the only reality, and right mental practice is to know God as He is and His creation as God knows it to be. If one believes in something unlike God, the Father of all is not changed because of this erroneous belief. Similarly, if one thinks of something that is not God's image and likeness and mistakenly calls it man, the man of God's creating is not affected by the error. What happens is that the erroneous belief, being underived from God, remains outside of heaven, harmony, and does not partake of God's love and protection. Anyone adopting the erroneous belief thereby shuts out of his consciousness the truth of being, and suffers the effects of believing a lie. This suffering is not because the erroneous belief clings to man, for the belief is without intelligence and cannot attach itself to him, but because the dreamer holds to that which is not in the realm of reality. Right thinking is clothed with power, but wrong thinking, which is the opposite of the right and can never be more than false belief, is powerless.

Suppose there were one hundred persons who, for the purpose of the illustration, were on substantially the same level of thought. One of them has imbibed through Christian Science a degree of correct understanding of God and man. This one receives, more plainly than ever before, spiritual ideas from Mind. Not having completely risen above matter, however, he still perceives in belief the erroneous suggestions which the other ninety-nine persons may continue to believe about him; but there will come to him some of our Leader's many guiding admonitions, of which the following may be one (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 83): "If the error which knocks at the door of your own thought originated in another's mind, you are a free moral agent to reject or to accept this error; hence, you are the arbiter of your own fate, and sin is the author of sin."

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