Error Has No Foundation
We would undoubtedly be more alert to deny the evidence of personal sense, and would find it much easier to do so, if we appreciated that in so doing we were destroying the very foundation on which the belief of error builds. To the man or woman of constructive mentality the word foundation presents a very tangible and familiar idea. One must first have the foundation before any structure can be erected. That Jesus recognized its significance is shown by his several references to it, the best known illustration perhaps being the parable of the house built upon the sand. In his letter to the Corinthians Paul writes, "For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Christ Jesus."
"Metaphysics resolves things into thoughts," Mrs. Eddy tells us on page 269 of Science and Health, and we can easily follow the connection between the idea of foundation as a thing and of foundation as a thought. Here then is the point of beginning in the scrutiny to which we should properly subject each thought that comes to us: What is its foundation? Did it come from God, or is its basis personal sense? If from God, the foundation is sure; but if from mortal sense, that father of lies, it is unsafe to build upon. This is the interesting and instructive point to the one who is learning to watch his thoughts and not be imposed upon by falsities, namely, that if we do not accept the first false testimony of personal sense in any specific instance, it has nothing on which to build, hence it cannot develop in our consciousness.
Many of us have learned at the cost of bitter experience that the structure of error erected in belief upon the foundation of material sense, is the house built upon the sand, which cannot stand; but when we learn to reject this unreal basis at the outset, so that nothing can be built upon it, we are saved a great deal of needless suffering and disappointment. To meet the false assertion of material sense in its incipiency, its first effort to obtain a foothold or foundation in consciousness, is effectually to prevent the development of the error in whatever way it may try to enlarge itself. Sometimes the first claim of error is a belief of pain in the body; sometimes it is "news" in a letter, or a morsel of gossip, or the newly recited sorrow of a loved one. Whatever it may be, this first effort to get itself believed is the effort of error to lay a foundation. But if no permission is given to error, no foundation can be laid, no building can be put up; in other words, the effort of the belief of error is effectually frustrated.
This process of protection illustrates the unlabored action of the divine Mind. All that Mind has to do is to know. When scientific thought recognizes the fact that some lie about Mind is being presented for acceptance, it spontaneously rejects the lie and the liar, personal sense. The result is a victory for what is true, with a corresponding sense of peace in the consciousness of the individual. No wonder that at times it seems almost impossible to manifest the spiritual courage necessary to declare the facts as God knows them, when discord seems supreme and powerful to destroy. The bald imposition of error would browbeat us if it could, by a show of size or importance when attempting to lay its foundation; but the multiplied admonitions found in our textbook to watch our thoughts continually, direct us in the way whereby we may avoid this imposition and so prevent any erroneous foundation being laid.
On page 273 of Science and Health Mrs. Eddy says, "Divine Science reverses the false testimony of the material senses, and thus tears away the foundations of error." This shows the false nature of error and its supposed foundation, for if the foundation were solid or true, nothing could tear it away; but divine Science does destroy the foundation by reversing the evidence of the senses, denying their verity. One might see in a mirage a tall building standing in the air with no apparent support, but it is inconceivable that a building of solid materials could be erected or presented to view without a substantial basis or foundation properly proportioned to support it. The mirage is typical of all the presentations of error; they are foundationless. If, therefore, we seem temporarily convinced of error, mesmerized by the belief that some awful apparition which presents itself is real and actual, when we tear away or remove the foundational error on which the apparition was based the whole trouble will quickly vanish.
If we have not watched faithfully, some error may have crept in unnoticed, until a large, complicated structure, big with pretension of reality, bursts upon the consciousness of the individual. If this has in belief seemed to occur, we need to reflect upon the fact that nothing which personal sense presents in the way of testimony is real or reliable or true; and the natural result of such reflection is to show up the erroneous thought or testimony which was first allowed to enter. Once seen through in its falsity, the nothingness of the foundation is disclosed and the whole false building collapses and disappears without the work of pulling it down piecemeal. The gradual or rapid adoption of this process of perception saves us much in the way of anxiety and fear, for it forestalls and prevents the growth of errors in consciousness, with their attendant discouragement, gloom, and prophecies of disaster.
This realization of the unreality of error's foundation is a most helpful adjunct in accomplishing our much desired education into the kingdom of heaven. Whether we are alert and see the falsity of the sense-testimony at its very first appearance, or do not perceive it until the belief has assumed terrifying proportions, the remedy is equally effective. The more alert mentality, however, justly experiences the greater reward of faithfulness.
