Article March 18, 1939 Issue

"Scientific self-correction"

NINA SEYMOUR KEAY

THE human consciousness is the arena in which seems to be fought out the battle between the spiritual evidence of everlasting harmony and the lying testimony of the material senses. In reality there is no battle, since Truth is indestructible, omnipresent, and infinite, whereas matter is nonexistent.

What is the struggle, then, that appears to be going on in the human experience of each individual? Is it not the dispelling of ignorance and false belief by means of the knowledge of Truth? Is it not ignorance which seems to resist knowledge and face progressive ideals with stubborn opposition? But in the final outcome it is obvious that ignorance, being negative, has no inherent power to resist true knowledge, which is positive — just as darkness has no power to resist light.

The ease with which a right idea is accepted in one's consciousness, or the stubbornness with which it is resisted, depends upon the degree of spiritual understanding already operating in that consciousness. When the balance is on the side of Truth, the error is cast out. Hence it is imperative that one should use the understanding of good that is already his, and strive by this means to overthrow the mistaken beliefs that obscure the light. In a telling passage in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 288) Mrs. Eddy shows how this can be done. She writes, "Positive and imperative thoughts should be dropped into the balances of God and weighed by spiritual Love, and not be found wanting, before being put into action; " and in the same passage she adds, "Wisdom in human action begins with what is nearest right under the circumstances, and thence achieves the absolute."

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