Article July 1, 1933 Issue

The One Right Way

LOUIS J. DU BOIS

HUMAN history shows the efforts of mankind to distinguish between truth and error. Philosophy has attempted to distinguish between reality and illusion. Mathematics presents a rule for the multiplication of two by two, a simple problem to which but one correct answer exists. On the other hand, error can suggest an indefinite number of erroneous answers. It would be difficult to imagine a time when members of the human race did not at least glimpse this one correct answer, did not have sufficient intelligence to utilize it and so reject all other proposed answers.

To the question, "What is man?" there exists but one correct answer. As indicated in the first chapter of Genesis, man is the image and likeness of God. There are encountered, however, the suggestions of error with its host of wrong ways of thinking about man; and many things unlike God have been embodied in the human concept and presented as an answer to the question, "What is man?" Why is human thought reluctant to reject the false concept of man, when it promptly and vigorously rejects any and all error regarding two times two? Is it not because the human mind has not been universally educated to this right understanding? The one and true answer to this most important question has been largely unknown. Christian Science shows the unreality of sin, sickness, and death, which obviously do not exist in God. Is it not a great boon to humanity that men can now reject these evils on the ground of their unreality? If through an understanding of Christian Science the energy and efficiency of our universities and schools were directed towards impressing this truth upon mankind, how greatly would the demonstration of this divine fact be advanced in the world today! Evil and false belief about man should be as easily disposed of as are errors about two times two. There may seem to be an indefinite number of wrong ways to think about any given subject, but there is only one correct way to think about that which is real and true. What is needed is an understanding of the Science which reveals the one perfect way to think about man, and aids mankind in the rejection and elimination of untruths.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus showed that wide is the gate and broad the way which leads to error, and that many go in thereat. Why does it seem easy to slip into error, instead of sticking to the truth about man? Is it not because mortals think there is reality and substance in these forms of error, and because they therefore believe themselves unable to resist the suggestions of reality and power in them? There has not been sufficient understanding of the truth and subsequent practice in the rejection of these errors; whereas men have the understanding of the fact about numbers which enables them to reject errors relative to two times two. Should we not devote more time to the study of the one right way, and improve our practice and demonstration of it? "Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life," our Master said. A mathematician, commenting on the science of mathematics, said it was a perfect science because it excluded so much. It is certainly true of Christian Science that the gate is straight and the way narrow, because it excludes all error and recognizes only the one right way.

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