The thinker in Christian Science discerns between the real and the unreal and bases his thinking on divine reality, thus accepting only spiritual values. The right thinker works to gain a clear understanding of the omniscience of God, and as a result, he receives God-given illumination. Prophets in the Bible iterated and reiterated that there is but one God and that there is none else beside Him. Jeremiah gave a revivifying promise of the eternality of God and His ideas when he recorded that Word of God thus (33:3): "Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not." The God-enlightened thinker is cognizant of divine facts. He acknowledges God as the one and only cause, the great First Cause.
Because the source of all right thinking is God, spiritual enlightenment unfolds as one prayerfully turns to divine Mind. Our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, states in "Miscellaneous Writings" (pp. 307, 308): "Every human thought must turn instinctively to the divine Mind as its sole centre and intelligence. Until this be done, man will never be found harmonious and immortal." The right thinker is alert to express genuine consecration in his devotion to demonstrating an ever clearer understanding of the law of God, which is Christian Science. Thus in the proportion that the thought of the right thinker turns "instinctively" and unreservedly to God, the way grows brighter and opens to fresh opportunities, spiritual awakening, and God-given illumination. The individual need, as well as that of all nations and peoples, is to understand the reality of God and to love and obey the law of God, wherein is no imperfection and no materialistic belief.
In the ever-active law of Mind there is no negative condition. The right thinker does not ruminate false, worn-out beliefs devoid of reality, nor does he indulge sinful desires, but he honestly conquers them. Thus he is not lured into any agreement with the arguments of error. Calm and steadfast reliance on omnipotent Mind marks thought obedient to divine Principle. The right thinker is not bound to stereotyped limitations, nor does he cling to his cherished beliefs and personal inclinations. His thought is liberated and free. There are no ruts in which to stand still in Christian Science, nor is there any place for indifference and passivity. Our great Exemplar made definite requirements of many who came to him for help. To the impotent man, Christ Jesus said (John 5:8), "Rise, take up thy bed, and walk," and "immediately" the man was healed. Our Master refused to let him continue to yield to the inertia of inactivity, but encouraged him to be active. In the same chapter we read that Jesus, seeing the man's need to prove the sincerity of obedience, told him (verse 14), "Thou art made whole: sin no more."
To be a right thinker, one must prove genuine sincerity in thought and living. In Christian Science there is no place for pretense or for self-glorification. This Science also makes clear that humility is a precious quality to be cherished. When he expresses genuine sincerity and humility, one is not in bondage to the pride of intellectuality, but more and more turns his thought "instinctively" to the all-seeing, all-wise Mind. Snap judgments and hasty decisions have no place in Christian Science. That which is God-directed is God-inspired and God-illumined.
"The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want," the Psalmist sang (Ps. 23:1). There is in reality no evil to make one "want," because God bestows inexhaustible good. The right thinker listens humbly for God's unerring guidance until he is honestly sure that there is no self-assertion, human will, or opinionated sense trying to clamor for its own tastes and ways. The mesmerism and glamour of mortal mind opinions cannot influence the right thinker. He expresses the orderliness of God, divine Principle, and sees more and more clearly the perfectness of immortal Mind. Then he expresses the capacity to be taught of Truth.
The right thinker trustingly understands that God's plan and purpose is all that can occur. Any attempt to tamper with God's purpose is doomed to failure. In true humility there is no willful human outlining. The right thinker is watchful not to make plans for error nor to accept material beliefs instead of spiritual ideas. Omnipotence enforces the law of God, eternal Mind, which never changes. Humbly the thinker serves God aright and blesses the whole universe by his discernment of divine reality and his alertness to deny false, unreal concepts and to forget self.
In true humility the right thinker does not indulge self-pity, for such does not deny error, but clings to the erroneous concept of a selfhood apart from God. If a problem is not healed promptly, it is often because the one needing healing clings fast to self-pity. The role of a martyr can find no place in thought filled with gratitude to God.
Christian Science reveals the unreality of evil. Therefore one should not attempt to be resigned to that which God did not make. The right thinker is free and is not at the mercy of evil or discord, nor is he the victim of circumstance. When the thinker is alert to deny defeatism, he cannot be made an agent for fatalism in thought or experience. He learns to conquer defeatism by proving its unreality. Thus the thinker is ready to go forward trusting God to illumine the way. The law of divine Mind is supreme.
The Christianly scientific thinker proves that there is nothing new to eternal Mind and that so-called limitations of time are not real. A high school senior was asked to take over the part of the leading actor in a senior play because at the last minute the young man originally scheduled could not be present. The senior had not attended rehearsals, nor had he taken part in dramatics. However, turning his thought to the ever-present divine Mind and acknowledging that man expresses God-given intelligence, he found his thought liberated, and he played the leading role well. Although there had been opportunity for only a brief study of the part before he came on the stage, he needed little prompting. As Christ Jesus said (Matt. 19:26), "With God all things are possible." The young man's experience exemplifies Mrs. Eddy's statement in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (pp. 518, 519): "The divine Principle, or Spirit, comprehends and expresses all, and all must therefore be as perfect as the divine Principle is perfect. Nothing is new to Spirit. Nothing can be novel to eternal Mind, the author of all things, who from all eternity knoweth His own ideas."
The thinker sees an ever grander view as he prayerfully studies the Bible and the works of Mrs. Eddy, and he is blessed by the illumination such study gives. The right thinker welcomes countless precious opportunities to acquaint thought with the reality of God, as our forever Leader makes clear when she writes (ibid., p. 596), "The illuminations of Science give us a sense of the nothingness of error, and they show the spiritual inspiration of Love and Truth to be the only fit preparation for admission to the presence and power of the Most High."
