Editorial March 7, 1942 Issue

Infinite Capacity

George Shaw Cook

Some synonyms of the word "infinite," given by Webster's dictionary, are "limitless," "boundless," and "immeasurable." So that which is infinite is understood to be without limit in power, capacity, ability, and capability. Since Mind, divine intelligence, is infinite in capacity, it follows logically that man, created in the likeness of Mind, for the purpose of expressing the nature of Mind, is, likewise, without limit in his ability to express the qualities that characterize Mind, God, Spirit, Soul, Principle. Therefore man, God's image, has boundless capacity to express that which is good and true. His capacity to reflect, to be conscious of, to know, that which is necessary to his happiness and well-being is immeasurable. Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, says on page 94 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures": "Jesus taught but one God, one Spirit, who makes man in the image and likeness of Himself,—of Spirit, not of matter. Man reflects infinite Truth, Life, and Love. The nature of man, thus understood, includes all that is implied by the terms 'image' and 'likeness' as used in Scripture."

It is regrettable, however, that mortals, believing in existence apart from God, the one and only Mind, find themselves subject to a sense of limitation, in every conceivable direction. They believe that they have a finite, limited, human mind separate from the infinite divine Mind, and consequently they find themselves subject to the restricted capacity of that so-called mind. In human experience, the demand for action and achievement is often met with the admission on the part of mortals that for some reason they cannot comply with the demand. They yield to the suggestions of incapacity, inability, and other phases of limitation. And one reason for this, perhaps the principal one, is the belief that man is material and is subject to material so-called laws and the conditions which they impose. Mrs. Eddy writes (ibid., p. 223), "Sooner or later we shall learn that the fetters of man's finite capacity are forged by the illusion that he lives in body instead of in Soul, in matter instead of in Spirit."

The so-called material senses testify to the existence of matter and support the claim that it can limit, impair, and even destroy one's ability to do that which he should do. The senses, for example, testify to the existence of disease and confirm the claim that it, in some of its forms, can prevent one from doing that which otherwise would be done with the utmost assurance and freedom. But the testimony of the material senses is false. They cannot testify truly with regard to anything that pertains to the truth or actuality of being. Their testimony should not, therefore, be accepted as valid, and no one should be deceived into believing that sense testimony is true or has any effect whatsoever on the facts of being as they exist in divine Mind.

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