Rightly directed reasoning is one of the foundation stones of a truly democratic community, from which issue liberty of thought and enlightenment. The word "reason" might be defined as the faculty of intelligence, especially the faculty by which we arrive at necessary truth. From the days when the ancient Greeks spoke of "Athens, the Free." to the present time, men have sought to advance beyond accepted traditions, and the beliefs and customs of earlier generations, by the path of human reason. Reason involves a mental process, and right reasoning is essential in arriving at truth.
The present chaos, brought about by human will and invention, can be illumined and ordered only by properly educated and disciplined thinking. Right ideals must displace the tendency towards human deification and the belief that "might is right." The understanding of individual freedom and individual responsibility is closely related to "the spiritual facts of being." Mary Baker Eddy writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 428). "To divest thought of false trusts and material evidences in order that the spiritual facts of being may appear,—this is the great attainment by means of which we shall sweep away the false and give place to the true."
Speaking no doubt from experience, the author of Proverbs declared that "where there is no vision, the people perish." Here "vision" may be taken to refer to spiritual discernment. The dark shadows of mesmerism which have for so long claimed to obscure or blot out that ability, are slowly but surely giving place to some, knowledge of the permanent facts of being. That it is becoming increasingly obvious that all mortal seeming is unreal, is borne out by a recent statement of a well-known physicist, in which he draws the conclusion that the common sense view of cause and effect is meaningless. Further, he observes that if a scientific view of cause and effect still operates, it does this in "some substratum of the world which lies beyond the world phenomena."
Today, the apparent solidity of matter, its strength and permanence, are constantly challenged. The breaking up of mortal mind's belief in limitations of time and space—already weakened by the increasing number of inventions making for more rapid intercommunication between nations and individuals, for greater mutual benefit, for greater co-operation—is the result of spiritualized thinking. Mastery over what have seemed to be established human beliefs is seen in the wider use of lighter and finer materials for larger and stronger articles. Frequently the less weighty and cumbersome the medium used, the greater are the resistance and strength of the finished product. The once generally accepted view that things must be heavy to be strong or protective no longer prevails, and the changed belief governs the result.
In the Old Testament story of David and Goliath the massive giant, who had "an helmet of brass upon his head, and . . . was armed with a coat of mail," is met by the young David, clad in simple shepherd's garments, "and his sling was in his hand." The heavily armed Philistine "arose, and came and drew nigh to meet David"—a description which in itself suggests weight and slowness in vivid contrast with the spiritual vision and activity of David, who "hasted, and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine," strong in the knowledge of the one God.
With the coming of Christ Jesus, he whom blind Bartimeus addressed as "thou son of David," an even greater understanding of the one God and the spiritual nature of man created in His image and likeness was manifested. Jesus' Christliness enabled him to look above and beyond so-called matter to the truth of creation evolved by a wholly spiritual creator, and to recognize that His ideas, universally and collectively, constitute the full manifestation of Mind.
Today, the Christian Science textbook sets forth, in language so simple that a child can grasp it, the true facts of creation. To quote Milton, "Our history now arrives on the confines, where daylight and truth meet us with a clear dawn, representing to our view, though at far distance, true colours and shapes." One studying this Science for the first time, and catching a glimpse of the fact that man is indeed "the son of God," straightway takes the initial steps that lead to ultimate spiritualization of thought and life. He may not be able at a single bound to reason consistently from a purely spiritual standpoint, but gradually, at less and less "far distance," he finds life taking on "true colours and shapes." Matter is seen to be only an imperfect, temporal sense of existence, a sense which is gradually lost sight of as reality appears.
Spirit's manifestation of itself cannot be material in any direction. A conception of Mind must be mental, and all-inclusive Mind contains within its infinite consciousness its infinite idea, man. To what great heights this knowledge will lead us, and how soon it will do so, depends upon the weight of our effort on the right side. And, thanks be to God, with the aid of the Bible, and the "key" to the Scriptures given us by our beloved Leader, we searchers for "necessary truth" are daily proving more completely that spiritual existence is the one and only fact of creation. As for mortal mind's misconceptions, they are, as Shelley wrote, but
The wandering voices and the shadows . . .
Of all that man becomes, . . .
. . . swift shapes and sounds, which grow
More fair and soft, as man grows wise
and kind,
And, veil by veil, evil and error fall.
