Thinking

To think is to reflect the intelligence of Mind, for Mind is the only intelligence. Now human reason will readily admit that to think is to bring to bear the faculties of intelligence, but human reason all too frequently admits the false hypothesis that intelligence may be a virtue of the human mind, and this erroneous premise leads to equally false conclusions, namely, that there may be varying grades of intelligence, that one person may be in some way endowed with a higher degree of intelligence than another, and that that person is capable of the best thinking who is invested with the highest intellect.

This, briefly, is the theory on which human autocracies have been built,—the theory that certain leaders are better able to do the thinking for the masses than the individuals constituting the masses are able to think for themselves. In national and religious autocracies the people have often been so subjected to the domination of men of rank and power that, instead of thinking and acting intelligently, they have become mere automatons, following blindly the course laid down for them by those to whom they have been trained to look as their superiors. Of course the very fact of such a condition indicates the depraved state of thinking of which it is the outcome. Stripped of its disguise, it is nothing more nor less than the belief that God is a respecter of persons, which is directly contrary to what the Scriptures declare. The fact is that Mind, being the Mind or intelligence of creation, is no less available to one than to all, and that man, being idea, reflects Mind.

Mortals, of course, are only too willing to have some one else do their thinking for them. The human mind instinctively resists the effort to think, for to think deeply would be to reveal its own nothingness, since the human mind is merely the suppositional opposite of the divine Mind, against which naught else can prevail. Then destroy the belief that there is a human mortal mind, and you spontaneously destroy that which has made possible autocratic government in any of its forms, for when it is realized that there is only the one Mind, then it must be acknowledged that this Mind is the Mind of all creation, and that there is no possible power which can separate man from this Mind. That the world is gradually awakening to this fact is evident from the growing demand for democratic government in all progressive countries. But even in a country of thinking citizens, it is surprising to see how readily a crowd will gather, all blindly pressing the way of the mob, without in the least knowing what they are following. Such a tendency illustrates the trend of the human mind toward blind leadership, rather than a readiness to know Principle. Truly, as Mrs. Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, declares on page vii of the Preface to the textbook, “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures”: “The time for thinkers has come. Truth, independent of doctrines and time-honored systems, knocks at the portal of humanity. Contentment with the past and the cold conventionality of materialism are crumbling away. Ignorance of God is no longer the stepping-stone to faith. The only guarantee of obedience is a right apprehension of Him whom to know aright is Life eternal.”

All must inevitably recognize, sooner or later, that God is the only Mind, and that man, the divine image and likeness, reflects this Mind. That is to say, man is inalienably endowed with intelligence, wisdom, and might from his Maker, divine Mind. Thinking, therefore, is effectual only as it is in accord with the Mind that is, in proportion as it is the emanation of the one intelligence. Human reason, so called, is merely a poor counterfeit of the action of divine Mind. Without a sound basis on which to work,—in other words, without Principle,—it leads only to confusion.

As the human gives place to the divine, as mankind fulfills the admonition of the apostle to “let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus,” then and only then will any man's thinking be found in accord with infinite good, and infinite good will be seen as ever present and forever expressed. For a man's thinking obviously corresponds with his knowledge of good, of Mind, and the quality of his thinking is inevitably expressed in word and deed. His every action is the expression of his thinking. As we read in the words of Mrs. Eddy on page 203 of “The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany,” “Our thoughts beget our actions; they make us what we are. Dishonesty is a mental malady which kills its possessor; it is a sure precursor that its possessor is mortal. A deep sincerity is sure of success, for God takes care of it.” Here is the one essential, “a deep sincerity.” Shakespeare put it tersely when he said, “To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.” For all true selfhood is in God, the divine Principle of being, and to be true to Principle, to reflect Principle, is man.

Thus we see that the power to think is not inherent in the human mind. Man has power to think only as God thinks, for man, being idea, is merely the reflection of God, divine Principle. All must sooner or later recognize and acknowledge man's true selfhood in the one Ego, the divine Principle of all individuality. Then it will be seen that no one can escape the privilege and duty of demonstrating absolute and eternal oneness with divine Mind; and this is all that constitutes the true thinker. Thinking is inseparable from living; to be in rapport with divine Mind, as man as the idea of Mind eternally is, is to be conscious only of what Mind knows. Recognizing man's inherent selfhood in God, it is seen how absolutely at variance with this true selfhood are the myriad beliefs of discord and disease with which the world has become engulfed. Simply to think truly, to reflect the intelligence of divine Principle, and to act in accord therewith, is dominion, the dominion with which man is inalienably endowed as the image and likeness of God. As this dominion of right thinking is universally recognized and acknowledged, sin, sickness, and death will be seen no more, and man and the universe, the perfect reflection of God, infinite good, will appear.