Article June 11, 1984 Issue

Thinking and its effects

GEORGE PAUL KEMNITZ

When we are confronted with discords, we can turn our thought to the contemplation of man's real origin as the child of God, which Christian Science teaches. We can hold to the understanding that man is the image and likeness of the divine Mind, God, infinite good. As the Bible puts it: "God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth." And further on, "God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good."^{Gen. 1:26, 31.}

From beginning to end, the Bible—and especially the gospel accounts of Christ Jesus' healing work—shows us how to find freedom from the ills and woes originating in earthbound thinking. The abundant healings recorded in the Bible illustrate the freedom that can be gained from every type of ill or misfortune. For present-day evidence of this, one has only to look in the testimony section of this magazine at the verified testimonies of gratitude for healing and delivery from human ills. There is nothing that God cannot do.

The Christian Scientist does not, however, practice mind control or thought manipulation. Rather, he yields to divine Mind as the only Mind, affirming the absoluteness of God's might and presence. He endeavors to behold what God has made, and to realize that there can be but one kind of man—the man created precisely in God's likeness. "Good does not create a mind susceptible of causing evil, for evil is the opposing error and not the truth of creation,"^{Science and Health, p. 93.} writes Mrs. Eddy in Science and Health. As we pray, we come to understand that God is indeed in control, and we need not be apprehensive about the false claims of earthbound thinking.