Editorial October 13, 1956 Issue

THE POWER OF THOUGHT

Helen Wood Bauman

Christ Jesus taught mankind to observe the power of thought and to watch the silent workings of the mind. His Sermon on the Mount considers inward thought and warns against outward pretense. Genuine purity, not perfunctory obedience to God's law leads one to the demonstration of spiritual, perfect man—God's likeness. Prayer and fasting are not to be public exhibitions of piety, but the awakening of conscience, which brings heart and mind into unity with God. The Master knew that one's experience reflects one's thoughts. He said (Luke 17:21), "Behold, the kingdom of God is within you." God's sovereignty extends to the inmost recesses of human consciousness; in all mental action His reign must be proved, His supremacy demonstrated.

Christian Science declares that disease is mental, that environment is a subjective state of consciousness, and that consequently the individual is responsible for himself. One can demonstrate God's control of thought at every point. After declaring that mortal mind and body combine as one, Mary Baker Eddy says in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 409). "The belief, that the unconscious substratum of mortal mind, termed the body, suffers and reports disease independently of this so-called conscious mind, is the error which prevents mortals from knowing how to govern their bodies."

When we become established in the understanding that God is the only Mind and that man's thoughts are fully controlled by divine Mind, we bring the body under subjection to Spirit. Recently my finger came in contact with something very hot, and instantly a large and painful blister appeared. I remembered at once our Leader's statement (ibid., p. 161): "You say, 'I have burned my finger.' This is an exact statement, more exact than you suppose; for mortal mind, and not matter, burns it." I saw that the angry burn on my finger was not the effect of the heat but of my resentful mental response to the heat; that the body has no ability to change or act without thought.

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