Correct Thinking

THOMAS C. HOLLINGSHEAD

The student of Christian Science is sometimes inclined to face his problems as though the difficulty in question were real and actual, and to go to work as though he believed it to be necessary for him to change an inharmonious condition into one less disturbing. Herein may lie the explanation of his failure to overcome quickly the error which seems to be confronting him.

Christian Science is demonstrated from the standpoint of present spiritual perfection. Mrs. Eddy writes (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 259), "The Christlike understanding of scientific being and divine healing includes a perfect Principle and idea,—perfect God and perfect man,—as the basis of thought and demonstration."

Roused by the cries of her dreaming child, the mother goes to him and is told by him that there is a lion in the corner of the room. Could the mother help the situation by believing that the lion seen in the child's dream was actually there? Would not her belief and consequent terror add to that of her child? Likewise, the acceptance of any error as real only adds to the seeming reality of the discordant situation, and renders the destruction of the belief in evil more difficult.

The allness of Spirit and consequent nothingness of Spirit's opposite, matter, is the foundation upon which scientific practice must be based. To vary from this standpoint, to admit the reality of a material universe, or a material man, or a material condition, is to admit that there is a foundation for the illusions called sin, sickness, and death.

Consider the action involved in Mrs. Eddy's words on page 425 of Science and Health, "Correct material belief by spiritual understanding, and Spirit will form you anew." The one confronted by some error or condition from which he would be freed, as the child deceived by the lion of his dream, is facing a belief or illusion without reality or actuality. This dream or material belief, though seeming very real, must through spiritual understanding be seen to be an illusion, and the eternal perfection of man and the universe, as the creation of God, affirmed. This, done steadfastly, faithfully, is all that the student can do, and this realization provides a means by which the ever present truth dispels a false sense or dream.

As the mother's comforting assurance that all is well arouses the child to a realization that he has been dreaming, so the truth understood and declared breaks the material dream and brings to the student the comforting realization that all is well with him. As there was no lion to be removed in order to bring about the child's peace, so there is no real discordant condition confronting the student. An illusion, a dream, has to be broken in each case; the spiritual harmony reigns.

Following the experience on the mount of transfiguration, as related in the seventeenth chapter of Matthew, is an incident illustrating the benefit of rejecting the unreal testimony of material sense through spiritual understanding. A father, during Jesus' absence on the mount, had brought to the disciples his son, "lunatick, and sore vexed," for healing; but they, still somewhat held in the mesmerism of belief in the reality of both good and evil, were unable to help him. The father then came to Jesus, upon his arrival, and entreated him to have mercy on his son, saying, "I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him." When he had cast out the devil, the Master was asked by his disciples, "Why could not we cast him out?" After rebuking their lack of faith, he said, "This kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting." This "prayer and fasting" is the constant effort to see God's creation as He sees it, eternally perfect, together with the ceaseless rejection of the claims of material sense to be real and powerful.

The Mind "which was also in Christ Jesus" is the state of consciousness attained through this process of "prayer and fasting." It is gained through the constant effort to understand the reality of "the things which are not seen," the eternal perfection of the kingdom of God.

On page 417 of Science and Health Mrs. Eddy writes, "To the Christian Science healer; sickness is a dream from which the patient needs to be awakened." And the student must take this position when solving a problem. To Jesus this method of correct thinking was so habitual that no dream of sin, sickness, or death could deceive him; and his followers today can approximate his ability only through consecrated effort to do likewise.

Jesus taught that the kingdom of God is here and now, in all its perfection, and that man is God's eternal likeness. Christian Science emphasizes the fact that man is spiritual and perfect, and shows that it is necessary and possible that he be so understood. All correct scientific thinking must be based upon this spiritual truth of being.

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