The human mind believing itself to be constituted of positive and negative elements, has accepted the reality of both. Not until a spiritually scientific outlook is attained do men learn that in the whole of Mind's creation there is no negative thought.

In his vision and demonstration of the Christ, Paul had recognized this, and he set it forth in his own way to the Corinthians. In speaking of what he had taught them, he asked: "The things that I purpose, do I purpose according to the flesh, that with me there should be yea yea and nay nay? But as God is true, our word toward you was not yea and nay." And he went on to explain to them why this was so: because he had learned that in Christ Jesus "all the promises of God in him are yea and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us."

Out of the negative, the destructive, the hateful and hating, out of strife and bitter controversy, Paul had come into the understanding that all the Christ-promises are affirmative, that man may express God's glory.

On page 334 of "Miscellaneous Writings" we find these words by Mary Baker Eddy: "Whatever simulates power and Truth in matter, does this as a lie declaring itself, that mortals' faith in matter may have the effect of power; but when the whole fabrication is found to be a lie, away goes all its supposed power and prestige."

The individual seeing around him, feeling perhaps within him, physical suffering or mental distress, evidence of that which appears to have the effect of power, will ask himself: "How can I establish the yea of Truth? How can I prove the nay to be the nothing which it really is?" The answer must be in intelligent, positive, unequivocal recognition of whence comes the yea of health and spiritual dominion; whence the nay of discord, failure, and finally of death. Whatever the phase error assumes, it is overcome by him who spiritually discerns its fabrication to be a lie.

Paul had evidently brought to the Corinthians a positive doctrine. He had taught them that spiritual-mindedness is life; that there is no darkness, no failure, no condemnation, and finally no annihilation in the Christ.

"I am come a light into the world," Jesus had told his followers, "that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness." The only thing that ever abides in darkness, that ever accepts the nay of mortal thinking, is materiality. In Mind's vast creation of beauty and light, of eternal unfolding, there is no negation. The "in him is no darkness at all" applies to every spiritual idea, showing forth the glory of God.

Are we faced in our lives with negative situations, arguing failure, fear, lack, distress? These are but the lie of mortality, falsely declaring itself to be true. Wisely alert, as Christian Science teaches us to be, we shall neither ignore error by pretending it is not there, nor run away from it, hoping to postpone or elude a direct issue with it. We shall remember that we are not at any time dealing with situations peculiar to ourselves, with which we feel inadequate to cope. There is no inexplicable, unpredictable curse aimed at us, no form of persecution of which we are the selected victims. We are not doomed to suffering as the result of something ignorantly or foolishly done by us or by our forebears. There is no inevitable heritage of sickness or impoverishment bequeathed to mankind. Whether the immediate problem calls itself ours or a world situation, mental or physical, only the belief that evil is real can give it power. This is the lie, this the nay which must be offset by the yea of Truth.

How quick and vigorous, and how clear in the positive light of spiritual affirmation, should be our denial of every suppositional symptom, every threatening and vexatious argument of materiality, which in its boastful fabrication seeks to destroy our peace. He who refuses to identify himself with that which separates itself from the promises and glory of God will continue, however dark and menacing the clouds about him, to abide in the light.

On page 208 of "Miscellaneous Writings" Mrs. Eddy tells us that "all states and stages of human error are met and mastered by divine Truth's negativing error in the way of God's appointing." Let us be ever awake to the character and meaning of the yea and of the nay, as they present themselves to us. Let us watch to see with which we are identifying ourselves. In the logical sequence and completeness of divine Science revealed to us by our Leader we prove, as we go forward to overcome the darkness of ignorance and disbelief, how steadfast can be the assurance of our yea; how evident, based upon divine law and inspired by the consciousness of Love's ever-presence, is the negative of sin, disease, and death.

Today throughout the world, in ways which bring wonderment and gratitude unspeakable to human hearts, mankind is learning that there is a faith which strips matter of its power, a faith elevated to spiritual understanding, which replaces the nay of deception and chance, of fear and suffering, with the yea that is the fulfillment of the promises of God.

Evelyn F. Heywood