RIGHT REASONING
To reason correctly one must start with the truth of existence. That the truth is the source of practical freedom was stated centuries ago by the great Master, Christ Jesus, when he said (John 8:32 ), "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." It is not difficult for mankind to accept this proposition; but mankind's concept of the truth has been vague because its reasoning has been based on a wrong premise. The un-Christlike thinker, regardless of his intellectual capacity, has for the most part based his reasoning on the premise of a material God and a mortal man. He has been willing to admit the perfection of God. However, with respect to man, he has considered him as a combination of good and evil qualities and as confined to a limited, material body. This, too, in spite of the fact that the first chapter of Genesis plainly states that man is made in God's image and likeness.
While Jesus fully demonstrated man's perfection, it was not until the advent of Christian Science that the basis of this demonstration was adequately explained. Through her Christlike spirituality Mary Baker Eddy arrived at the conclusion that right reasoning can be based on nothing short of absolute spiritual perfection. In the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mrs. Eddy says (p. 492 ): "For right reasoning there should be but one fact before the thought, namely, spiritual existence. In reality there is no other existence, since Life cannot be united to its unlikeness, mortality."
Man's spiritual identity, including love, purity, honesty, and other qualities of infinite Mind, has no connection with a physical body. Indeed, the material body is only a false concept of man's true spiritual identity. This personalized concept is described in the second chapter of Genesis as the man formed of "the dust of the ground."
Reasoning from the basis of Adam, or the man of dust, necessarily forces one to begin with imperfect matter. Material science bases its conclusions on the observation of the way matter seems to behave. After a certain phenomenon has been observed a number of times and found to follow a certain pattern of behavior, it is assumed that this behavior will continue consistently. When one set of circumstances follows another, the hypothesis is formed that the first set of circumstances is cause, while the second is believed to be effect. The physical sciences are based on this general structure of reasoning. However, when it is remembered that matter is in a constant state of change, it can be understood that an exact science can never be the outcome of material observation.
This type of reasoning could truly be disheartening to the earnest seeker for reality were it not for the Comforter, which the Master promised, and which appears in this age as Christian Science. This Science, being the Science of Christ, is the only science of exact reasoning. This is so because Christian Science is the revelation of God, Spirit, and of His allinclusive perfection, which never deviates. An exact science can be based only upon an unchanging and perfect Principle. Instead of observing material effects and attempting to reason back to a material cause, the Christian Scientist begins with a perfect, immutable cause, which is God. He thus acknowledges a perfect effect, which is entirely spiritual. With the one fact of spiritual existence before his thought, he reasons rightly. His perception of spiritual reality, right where material imperfection appears to the material senses, gives him dominion—dominion to eradicate sin, disease, or whatever would attempt to contradict the all-inclusive perfection of the perfect cause.
The practicality of right reasoning was evidenced in the experience of an office worker. A card containing all the information regarding a large account had been lost for several weeks. While it was not in this person's department, she had assisted in the search for it, always with the attitude that while it was not her responsibility, she was willing to help. One morning on her way to work the thought came to her, "Why, finding that card is your responsibility, for you have the right means with which to work." Immediately she began to reason that the one Mind is all-knowing, and that therefore, as Mind's reflection, she expressed that knowing. Because there is but one intelligence, God, then she, as God's image, expressed intelligence. Nothing could possibly be lost, since Mind is always expressing itself in perfect order.
After reasoning thus, she dismissed the problem, trusting the result to God. In a few days while she was looking in some old files, the thought came to her to look in the back of a drawer. She obeyed this angel thought instantly; and to her joy, there was the card. A few days later her office manager said to her, "I don't see how you found that card when all of us had looked for it for so many weeks." The Scientist simply answered, "I prayed, as I do over any problem."
As long as one considers himself to be a corporeal person, torn between two forces—one good and the other evil—he will be unable to find a permanent remedy for human problems. It is a different story, however, with one who is aware of himself as an idea, or manifestation, of the one infinite Mind. When one thinks from this absolute standpoint his denials of error become a sincere acknowledgment of the utter nothingness of anything unlike God. When any error is clearly seen as nothing— without cause, history, or ability to act—it can no longer dominate or control one's daily experience.
As the oneness and allness of divine Mind are increasingly acknowledged and realized, the implication is bound to follow that this acknowledgment and realization evidences divine Mind, asserting itself and declaring through its idea its own oneness and allness. Thus it is through Mind's self-revelation that we find the infallible basis for right reasoning.
