Article January 9, 1954 Issue

"FOR RIGHT REASONING"

STREATFIELD H. COX, JR.

Everyone desires to find a logical and practical solution to whatever problems present themselves in human experience. In order to do this, reasoning must necessarily rest on premises which are in accord with the reality of being—with the truth of God's all-ness and of man's perfect spiritual existence. On page 492 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mary Baker Eddy writes, "For right reasoning there should be but one fact before the thought, namely, spiritual existence." An examination of the fact of spiritual existence, revealed through Christian Science, shows how this essential truth enables everyone who understands it to reason rightly concerning all problems, and, as a result, to find their solution. Revelation always accompanies right reasoning; and reason and revelation result in demonstration.

Christian Science reveals God to be the underlying Principle of spiritual existence, since He is Spirit. It unveils the truth that since God is the all-knowing Principle of spiritual existence, He is Mind, the source of all intelligence. In Isaiah we read (45:5), "I am the Lord, and there is none else." This implies that God is self-conscious Being, or infinite Soul, and that He is All. John tells us that "God is love" and that "perfect love casteth out fear" (I John 4:16, 18). Since God, Spirit, is perfect Love, He is unchanging good; He is our loving Father-Mother. Since God is eternal Life, He lives forever, and since God is Truth, He is all that is true. Truth, Life, Love, Soul, Spirit, Mind, Principle, are all synonyms for God, each individually expressing God's spiritual nature. They are distinct and yet are fully equivalent terms for God.

Since Spirit, Mind, is All, nothing can exist apart from Mind and Mind's natural expression of itself through spiritual ideas. These ideas, or reflections of God, are necessarily distinct from the divine Mind conceiving them, and yet they are at one with this Mind and possess all of Mind's qualities, since like necessarily produces like. Because man, God's highest idea, is the image and likeness of God, Spirit, he is the compound idea of divine Mind, and as such he reflects all that Mind includes. Man's consciousness is the reflection of divine consciousness, or Soul; his intelligence is the reflection of divine intelligence, or Mind; his being is the reflection of the Supreme Being, or eternal Life; his substance is the reflection of divine substance, or Spirit; his expression of love is the reflection of divine Principle, Love. Man has all that the Father has, by reflection, God and man coexist and are the whole of spiritual existence. The truth of God and man is the spiritual fact.

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