Proving one’s right place
Originally published in the April 29, 1921 issue of The Christian Science Monitor
The solution of the problem of right place is to recognize, first of all, and always, that Principle, and not man, does all the placing. Man is effect, therefore he never determines anything himself, but is forever determined by his one and infinite cause, divine Principle. It is essential to see clearly that this true order of effect or the actual man absolutely manifesting at all times cause or the actual Principle, is never reversed. Man never controls, directs, or affects himself or others; he is controlled by Principle, which, being in fact the only cause, must place man as effect where he is and in all that he is doing. Place refers to relation, and the primal relation which governs every situation is Principle completely controlling man. Any other place than under the entire supervision of Principle would not be right because it would be contrary to truth or the true fact, so the Principle of the problem of right place is exactly the beginning point for the right answer. To begin with Principle as the absolute cause for man's position and all that he is doing is to see that all that man is doing, and is ever called upon to do, is to conform perfectly to his cause or Principle. For the solution of any problem of place a man must cling with readiness and joy to Principle as the only power which is placing and will continue to place His manifestation, the real selfhood of every individual. “Forget not for a moment,” reminds Mrs. Eddy, on pages 154 and 155 of “Miscellaneous Writings,” “that God is All-in-all—therefore, that in reality there is but one cause and effect.”
The essential characteristic of the place in which Principle is now maintaining man is its entire goodness. Only the absolutely perfect can proceed from divine Principle, so by divine compulsion man is in a place that is now perfectly harmonious in every respect. No element of imperfection or evil is to be found where man actually is now, for there is no Principle to maintain such supposed qualities. Man's problem, therefore, is not to seek his place, for Principle has him perfectly filling it right now. His problem is not to change the nature of his place from wrong to right. Principle perfectly maintains the absolute rightness of man's place, and has ever done so. Each man's problem, if problem one can ever call such a joyous occasion, is to destroy through this right knowing and acting any mesmerism that would suppose an opposite to this eternally true place that man is perfectly filling now. In the acknowledgment of Principle as absolute cause controlling every detail of man's experience an opposite is seen to be utterly without existence. By thus radically relying on Principle one is bound to prove the completeness and harmony of his present place, for one is thus conscious of man's real experience which has no imperfect opposite.
When one speaks of right place he really thinks of right action, for man is always active or conscious wherever he is. One's problem or what one truly desires is to act rightly. As the effect of Principle or Mind, man is the very action of divine consciousness, for the action of cause must be effect. The action or conscious experience that man finds in his present place in consciousness must be as absolutely right as its divine cause. A man's sureness of the orderly way to proceed comes from adherence to the spiritual order of man placed or controlled by this one consciousness or intelligence. Certainly unlimited intelligence knows exactly the right thing for man to do. And as one sees that there is no other causative Mind than this divine intelligence, he sees that the orderly or right action of the one Mind is his present and inescapable experience. Mrs. Eddy left this as the parting fact in closing, on page 64, her remarkable volume called “Unity of Good,” “Mortals may climb the smooth glaciers, leap the dark fissures, scale the treacherous ice, and stand on the summit of Mont Blanc; but they can never turn back what Deity knoweth, nor escape from identification with what dwelleth in the eternal Mind.” Of course, throughout all her writings Mrs. Eddy iterates and reiterates this fact, as when she writes onpage 522of “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” the textbook of Christian Science, “Existence, separate from divinity, Science explains as impossible.”
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