We are all inclined to place the blame for our problems on someone or something other than ourselves. This is sometimes where it belongs, but even in such instances, Christian Science offers this most comforting thought: the remedy or solution to all our problems can be found as we apply the truth taught by Christian Science to our own thinking. There is no untoward circumstance or condition with which one is confronted that cannot be replaced by a spiritual truth. By changing one's thinking so that it conforms more nearly to the scientific truth of the situation, one helps to bring about this replacement. One's chief work lies within oneself.
Knowledge of this fact gives the student of Christian Science some proper sense of his God-given dominion over his own thinking and thereby over his own experience. We experience only that which we permit to enter our consciousness as real, and nothing else.
Christian Scientists are learning that as they steadfastly refuse to accept a discordant condition as real, and strive to replace any error with the truth of harmonious being, they are able to demonstrate health, happiness, and success in their experience rather than disease, misery, and failure. They thus learn the meaning of Mary Baker Eddy's statement, "Error comes to you for life, and you give it all the life it has" (Twelve Years with Mary Baker Eddy by Irving C. Tomlinson, p. 85).
All that is ever really going on is God being and expressing Himself. Therefore all that is actually taking place is good, because God is good. When any situation appears which is contrary to good we can, on the basis of the reality of God and His creation, deny it and refuse to accept it as real. By so doing, we reverse the usual process of automatically accepting as real whatever seems to happen. We in that way replace false beliefs, such as sickness, accident, discordant human relationships, with the truths of health, safety, and harmony. Thus we enjoy a better human experience—one more free from inharmony and discord.
God has given to each one of us as His image and likeness dominion "over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth" (Gen. 1:26) . This dominion is evidenced as we express our true, spiritual nature. Our bodies, thoughts, and experiences are thus brought under God's government.
The manifestation of health and harmony is in accord with God's purpose for us, and we know that we have the divine right to this manifestation and that the demonstration of health and harmony is not subject to any circumstance which is beyond God's control. We utilize this control as with true motives we recognize and express our spiritual selfhood. As we keep our thinking filled with spiritual, God-derived thoughts, we gain happiness for ourselves rather than surrender to thoughts of unhappiness.
The mesmeric suggestions of mortal mind, claiming to be an evil circumstance or the act or thought of someone else, cannot enter the consciousness filled with Truth and Love, and delineate an inharmonious experience. Mrs. Eddy writes on page 234 of Science and Health, "Sin and disease must be thought before they can be manifested." As we refuse to accept as true any belief or appearance of discord, we are prepared to demonstrate harmony in our experience.
Christ Jesus taught (Mark 7:15), "There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man." By watching our own thinking, by entertaining divine ideas, we shall find our lives filled with joy, health, and success and undefiled by any sense of error. Mrs. Eddy says (Science and Health, p. 378): "Unwittingly you sentence yourself to suffer. The understanding of this will enable you to commute this self-sentence, and meet every circumstance with truth."
While Jesus suffered for the sins of others, he did this voluntarily because of his great love for mankind and his desire to show us the utter unreality and powerlessness of all evil, even death and the grave. Only through overcoming evil experiences could he set an example for us and accomplish this holy purpose.
Once realizing that his outward expression of health and daily affairs is controlled by his own thinking, and then accepting the direction of the divine Mind, one does not fear that he lacks the choice as to what he is to think. He knows that through reliance on God he can think correctly, in accordance with divine Principle. This spiritual thinking will, in turn, be manifested in a healthy body and harmonious affairs.
The certain knowledge that God is Mind, his Mind, the one and only Mind, gives the student of Christian Science the confidence to free himself from any erroneous interference in his thoughts. He can no longer fear that he must believe the discordant suggestions of material sense. He recognizes that because he is in reality the reflection of God, he can express only the thoughts of God.
The fact that the remedy for discord in our experience lies in the correction of our thinking was demonstrated in the affairs of a Christian Scientist. A friend of his refused to pay him a sum of money owed for work done, stating that the terms under which he had been working were different from those understood and in effect for a number of years. The Scientist did daily prayerful work with regard to the problem for many months but without apparent results.
One day as he was working metaphysically he realized that he had been accepting a false concept of man as an errant mortal and then trying to correct that mortal. The thought then came that the main difficulty lay within himself—not without, in his friend. He saw that he must change his own perspective of man and the situation, instead of seeking to correct something or someone believed to be outside his own consciousness. Immediately he took steps to adjust his own attitude and to know that the mortal situation confronting him was untrue and could not be a part of his experience. He recognized that man is immortal, that he is upright and just, governed by divine Principle. Within a week his friend called and offered a fair settlement, which was agreed upon.
We all can learn from such demonstrations of Christian Science how correcting our own thinking and bringing it into line with the Christ-consciousness can loosen the bands and chains that have bound us or that we have allowed to be forged by mortal error.
