MANKIND'S troubles can all be effaced as the true sense of intelligence is manifested, to the exclusion of its counterfeit. On page 469 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mrs. Eddy writes: "Intelligence is omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence. It is the primal and eternal quality of infinite Mind, of the triune Principle,—Life, Truth, and Love,—named God." Since intelligence is primal and eternal, it obviously knows neither cessation, lapse, nor disability; it is not subject either to immaturity or to deterioration.
Mind and its manifestation being omnipresent, there is for man as Mind's expression no absent-mindedness. Immortal man reflects immortal intelligence. Since it is a quality of divine Principle, intelligence is used only for righteous purposes. What is unrighteous is unintelligent. Crime, hate, enmity, and the involuntary errors of sickness and death express the ignorant assumption of life and intelligence in matter. They are counterfeits of health, holiness, and immortality, for divine Mind alone is truly causative.
As a quality of Truth, intelligence is immovable, flawless, free, uninfluenced by the suppositions of error. Therefore, as mortals utilize this intelligence, they find former erring habits of thought, speech, and action being arrested and nullified. Intelligence never believes in the absence of good, nor in the presence of discord.
Divine Love and Life impart to man spiritual purity, joy, and health, which are among the constituents of spiritual intelligence. To suffer, to be sorrowful, or to die through one's intelligence is an impossibility, for these experiences savor of mortal fiction, never of spiritual fact. They bear no relation to divine Principle and its reflected intelligence, which links man with his Maker and is his counselor, guard, and guide.
According to material theories, intelligence is generally believed to be assembled in the brain and communicated through sentient nerves. But the truth about intelligence is forcibly asserting itself and is dawning in the general thought of mankind through the widespread influence of Christian Science. Recently, for instance, a well-known professor published a statement to the effect that "there is infinitely more in the human consciousness than in the corresponding brain." This inspired utterance did not emanate from the brain. In Christian Science, the healing of insanity is accomplished on the basis of the changeless divine Mind and the changeless intelligence which it imparts. This impartation is far above the belief in finite discord, mental disturbance, nervous breakdown, shock, or so-called brainstorm. The intelligence expressed by man in God's likeness is above weakness, hysteria, panic, or decadence.
Unquestionably, great meekness is required before one is able sincerely to acknowledge that his intelligence is something more than a personal possession, self-created through matter, and at its mercy. So deep-rooted is the theory that both thought and sensation are formed by and imparted through brain that one must be alert and faithful in rebuking this counterfeit of mind in matter and matter in Mind. As the primal and eternal quality of Life, Truth, Love, divine Principle, intelligence cannot cognize or produce both harmony and discord, else it would be divided against itself. The ready sanctuary from all suffering is found through discarding what is false in thought and abiding in the reflection of pure Mind, which is the unfailing source of righteousness, health, and ever-lasting life.
Spiritual reflection and its stability provide the remedy for mental disability and also for limited ability and are open to all who apply the teachings of Christian Science. If we seem subject to lapses of memory or inaccuracy, we should recall that the definition already quoted allies intelligence to omniscience. The reflection of this omniscience is man's heritage, and we should claim it on divine grounds, utilizing it here and now for the perfect accomplishment of our human tasks.
On the other hand, Mind's omniscience can free human thought from discordant mental pictures or tenacious memories, not one of which is included in the omniscience of infinite Mind. Not being reflected pictures, they are not true. In the one Mind there is no aggressive or lingering obsession of error. Through spiritual sense we can, therefore, blot out every discordant mental suggestion as unknown to the all-knowing Mind, and therefore not actual, not rememberable. Man cannot exceed God's knowledge. As we reflect more and more of Mind's omniscience, we shall be less and less troubled by the phantoms of erroneous concepts. Undesirable memories bear no relation to Life, Truth, Love, divine Principle, and they have never penetrated the sacred consciousness of spiritual man. Mind's omniscience enfolds and unfolds only everlasting beauty, harmony, laborless activity.
Isaiah glimpsed the blessedness of divine consciousness when he declared, "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee." We have begun to express true intelligence when we concede that matter is never intelligent, and that divine Mind is ever at hand to reveal to us all that we need to know every moment, and to cause us to act accordingly, as peacemakers, with wisdom, mercy, justice, and might.
True intelligence unifies individuals. It is the blending of divine qualities, the cementing of every true interest and right endeavor. One can never be separated from another through his intelligence, for every expression of the one Mind is united to every other expression of good. Intelligence is never quarrelsome, jealous, or afraid, for it conveys only heaven-sent qualities to man—serenity, confidence, wisdom. Moreover, there is no limit to intelligence. Every child, man, and woman can reflect it, irrespective of what limits brainology seeks to set on achievement. Intelligence ushers us into the realm of spiritual reflection, which knows no limit. Spiritual man is consciously intelligent, consciously receptive to good. He is never at a loss for ideas, for he is the full manifestation of all that Mind imparts. He is never expressionless, but always expressive, and fully conscious of the one Mind, which Mrs. Eddy says (ibid., p. 511) "forms ideas, its own images, subdivides and radiates their borrowed light, intelligence, and so explains the Scripture phrase, 'whose seed is in itself.' "
