THE relation of scientific thought to right living is indicated by Mrs. Eddy when she says of the Master that "he knew that the philosophy, Science, and proof of Christianity were in Truth, casting out all inharmony" (Science and Health, p. 271). Mortal sense would have us live in the realm of things rather than that of thought, of so-called facts rather than philosophy, and in so far as men yield to its appeal they make no effort to work out the deeper problems of life for themselves or others. This is especially true respecting religious matters. The effort to find a rational explanation of experience, the meaning of life, is looked upon as visionary and impractical by many. Men wrestle with business and become keenly philosophical with respect to its problems, because business success gratifies their love of materiality or of power, but they are often quite content to leave the consideration of religious questions to "the cloth."
Moreover, the unprofitableness of undemonstrated religious opinions has been deeply impressed upon the average man, with whom Christian teaching has thus come to be regarded as mere theorizing, and it is not difficult to explain why he should say, "I haven't time for your doctrines, what are the facts?" Nevertheless, it remains forever true that philosophy, that is, right thought about the nature of things and their relations, is a fact of the most vital importance. Without the cement of logical explanatory thought, events would become a lot of chaotic occurrences and life would be wholly and hopelessly disorganized and superficial. Its substance and satisfactions above those of a brute would be quite negligible.
Without philosophical inquiry, moreover, a fundamental law of thought, the law of the sufficient reason, would have to be denied. Every progressive intelligence not only feels the impulsion of this law, but on a higher or lower plane he responds to it. As apprehended in Christian. Science, constructive philosophy stands for the profoundest, most fruitful activity of the human mind. It relates effects to cause, the idea to its Principle, and when perfect God is revealed it gives us His manifestation, perfect man in a perfect universe. It thus becomes the interpreter of Truth, a safeguard against fallacy; hence the constant use which Christ Jesus made of it in all his teaching. With him facts were not divorced from their scientific statement. He was giving a reason for conditions and events, he was always relating good, beautiful, and true things to the nature and activity of his Father, and all disharmony and disease to the nature and seeming activity of evil. This is one of the most distinctive features of his gospel, and the thoughtful among the Greeks who heard St. Paul's exposition of it on Mars' hill must have been greatly astonished and impressed thereby. Their religious thinking did not thus separate between the tares and the wheat. With them the gods were as greatly given to contradictions and conflict in their sphere as are mortals in theirs, and the apostle's declaration of an ideal God and His all-inclusive and ideal manifestation, challenged and rebuked well-nigh every thought they had respecting their deities and their doings.
