Beliefs. Opinions. Speculations. Predictions. These swirl around (even batter, we may often feel) the average citizen in a modern society with its intense network of communications. Sometimes it is tempting just to switch off, metaphorically as well as literally, for some peace. And we occasionally need to. But we definitely should not consistently avoid grappling with the thoughts and views that are important to the spiritual and moral health of our family, community, and nation.

To be spiritually and intellectually active takes effort. But the more we make the effort, the better we become at appreciating the significance—positive or negative—of new thoughts, then accepting or rejecting them. The Christian Scientist cannot sidestep the demand to be mentally energetic. The Scientist, more than others, accepts the primacy of thoughts—good thoughts—in initiating right action, in maintaining health, in healing.

Christian Science itself came about through effort—among other things the effort of its Discoverer to grapple with new thoughts and perceptions. This individual, Mary Baker Eddy, writes in the Preface of her most important work, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: "A book introduces new thoughts, but it cannot make them speedily understood. It is the task of the sturdy pioneer to hew the tall oak and to cut the rough granite." ^{Science and Health, p. vii;} The reader of Science and Health, the recipient of the new thoughts, has to work energetically, too. He or she finds that the hitherto obscure passage or concept is not to be slid over but worked at, mined for its deepest spiritual meaning and application.

A prerequisite for grappling with a new thought is genuine, open eagerness to be challenged. And a willingness to challenge, as well—to examine what's proposed to us in books, documentary films, thoughtful discussions. We need to question vigorously the things that are put to us as truths, to test the purity of the metal. We need to measure our beliefs and attitudes by putting them against the teaching of the Science of Christ. The challenging, the willingness to be challenged, the pursuit of new thoughts—these are exhilarating.

Willingness to wrestle with concepts and proposals is especially important at election times when we're being asked to consider a wide range of opinions about economics, foreign policy, the proper action of government, and so on. The energy we need in order to be informed citizens derives from divine Life, omnipresent Mind.

Grappling successfully with new thoughts is demanded if we would be up-to-date thinkers; and the best approach to grappling with such thoughts is metaphysical. Nothing is new to timeless Mind, which includes all actual ideas, all of which are spiritual and good. And Mind—being omniscient—is fully familiar with every actual idea. This Mind is the only Mind, and is reflected in the only real consciousness of man. Accepting this Christianly scientific truth helps us deal with news, information, projects, more wisely and confidently. It helps us identify and welcome genuinely useful new ways of thinking and of doing things. (However, we shouldn't believe that to be a modern thinker means dismissing all traditional or conventional views or practices simply because they are traditional or conventional or arose with an earlier generation. The incisive thinker judges concepts on their intrinsic merits, not on their vintage.)

The higher levels of the human intellect—the intelligent, incisive reasoning and sensitive, helpful insight—derive from omniscient Mind and appear to us through the action of the eternal Christ. To see, through the Christ, that God is both Mind and Life helps us be more acute and vigorous thinkers; while the effect of mortal mind—the Christ-resisting belief that consciousness is finite and material—would blunt the forward edge of our thought. Think, for example, of Jonah. He was open enough to new spiritual thoughts to be able to hear the voice of God. But he was not alert enough to deflect the mortal thinking that took him to Tarshish instead of Nineveh.

"In the mental collisions of mortals and the strain of intellectual wrestlings, moral tension is tested, and, if it yields not, grows stronger," ^{Miscellaneous Writings, p. 339;} writes Mrs. Eddy. The mental confrontation of mortals and "the strain of intellectual wrestlings" are not to be cast aside as tiring exercises but welcomed as opportunities for moral, spiritual, intellectual advancement. It is not in the least realistic to think that we can just sit in a comfortable chair while new thoughts get poured over us like chocolate sauce over ice cream!

To be spiritually progressive we must grapple with new ideas, and be willing to seek points of view that are more and more valid because more and more spiritual. "Divine Science," Mrs. Eddy makes plain, "demands mighty wrestlings with mortal beliefs, as we sail into the eternal haven over the unfathomable sea of possibilities." ^{Retrospection and Introspection, pp. 56–57.} The mighty wrestlings are not to be avoided but welcomed as necessities in gaining the spiritual understanding of God and man that heals and regenerates.

GEOFFREY J. BARRATT