Article June 21, 1952 Issue

OUR CONSENT

WINIFRED M. RICHARDSON

Some years ago a student of Christian Science telephoned a practitioner for help in order to gain the consent of the authorities to rebuild part of her house, which had suffered from enemy action. The answer came back, "Your own consent is what you really need." This arresting statement showed the student that instead of wholeheartedly consenting to the fact of God's law of continuous right activity, she had been expecting difficulty and opposition.

It was pointed out that in order to recognize the unchanging continuity of God's law, we must start with divine Mind, which governs and maintains all right activity at its own level, the level of perfection. She realized that instead of hoping Christian Science would put something right, she must consent to the fact that God's creation is already right, even though that consent be given in the face of the opposing evidence of the senses. Such opposition to right activity is merely a suggestion that there is a mind separate from the one and only Mind; but such a suggestion has no intelligence or ability to act or to contend against Mind's omnipotence. Standing by these truths, the Scientist went to the authorities assured that only the one intelligent Mind was acting and fully expecting to see that truth manifested. She met what she was looking for and gained all that was needed in order to go forward quickly with the work.

It is our ignorance of spiritual facts, or our failure to recognize and use them, that builds up so much apparent opposition or obstruction to right activity and tempts us to give our consent to error's presence. In her "Miscellaneous Writings" Mary Baker Eddy states (p. 228): "Floating with the popular current of mortal thought without questioning the reliability of its conclusions, we do what others do, believe what others believe, and say what others say. Common consent is contagious, and it makes disease catching."

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