Paul admonishes us, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus."Phil. 2:5; This admonition, repeated in the Tenets of Christian Science See Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 497; by Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, is a fundamental rule in Christian Science Mind-healing. Knowing God as our Mind is the closest of all possible relationships, and the most rewarding.
The Mind which was "in Christ Jesus," which constituted his consciousness and animated his life, was God. This is the divine consciousness that was and is the Saviour from all the consequences of belief in a mind that is not God. The understanding of Truth is God's own understanding of Himself, and is the immortal consciousness that precludes the knowledge or experience of anything other than good.
No wonder Christian Science exalts the power of Mind to save and to heal! Mind's power is not the power of a human mind over matter but the power of spiritual understanding over material belief. It is the power given unto the Christ, the Son of God, the power of divine consciousness over all unlike itself. The consciousness that is one with its true source, the divine Mind, is inseparable from the Father and therefore reflects the power and understanding of the Father. Jesus said, "I am not alone, but I and the Father that sent me."John 8:16; He knew that he had no independent life of his own and that the "I" of his being was inseparable from the Father. True consciousness is inseparable from the divine Mind, which is its origin, state, and continuity.
Divine Mind is the only real Mind of man. When the ideas of the divine Mind constitute our individual consciousness, consciousness reflects the power and grandeur of its divine source and drops the limitations of human belief. Then healing takes place. Mind is not far off, nor is it something to be invoked or entreated. Rather is it that altitude of eternal consciousness which knows and experiences its own flawless perfection. It is as close as the ideas expressing it. The power of Mind acts as Saviour to our human experience in proportion as Mind's qualities constitute our thinking and animate our living.
Jesus once said, "He whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God."3:34; A statement of Truth speaks the Word of God and with the power of God, not with the fallibility of a human talking about God. This is particularly important to see when we are preparing for the public practice of Christian Science. No false sense of modesty should allow us to doubt the power of the Word or delay our readiness to practice, provided a profound preparation of the heart is under way. Nothing in fact is so immodest as to suppose we have power to make statements of Truth separate from Truth itself. We feel the power of the Word when we know we are speaking with the power of the Word. The Word, the Christ, is at one with the Father, the divine Mind, wherein is only perfection and harmony, and our treatment ascends to the majesty of its divine source.
In the most absolute sense, we do not pray for some process to take place or try to outline the expression of God, good. "Deity, which outlines but is not outlined" Science and Health, p. 591; is part of Mrs. Eddy's definition of "Mind" in Science and Health. We can be certain that, in proportion to our consciousness of our unity with the divine Mind, the influx of light will do its own work of chasing away the shadows of belief to the point where a normal situation is humanly appreciable or apparent. God's world is totally and wonderfully right. The consciousness of what is saves us from the belief of what is not.
To the divine Mind, there has never been a need for healing, just as from the standpoint of the sun there has never been an absence of sunlight. The compassion of the Christ reaches and meets the human need just as the light of day penetrates the valleys and shadows. The Christ will meet our need to the extent that, rather than merely watching a human process, we are actually expressing that light and letting that Mind which was in Christ Jesus be our own Mind.
Mortal troubles stem from the elementary belief in a mind or life apart from God. "Error begins by reckoning life as separate from Spirit, thus sapping the foundations of immortality, as if life and immortality were something which matter can both give and take away," ibid., p. 539; writes Mrs. Eddy. Incidental to this belief are all the secondary beliefs appearing as sin, sickness, lack, sorrow, and so on. The Mind which is God denies all mortal beliefs, and indigenous to this Mind is heaven, harmony. In finding our unity with our divine source, we place existence on a safe basis and experience it from the standpoint of Mind.
The divine Mind is the only Ego. It is all that can say I am. Idea cannot say I am separate from divine Mind, for divine Mind is the consciousness of every one of its infinite ideas. Mortal mind can never say I am. In place of such erroneous statements as I am sick, tired, sad, afraid, or in want is the present spiritual fact of the one Ego declaring, "I am All, exhaustless good— joy, peace, and abundance." Nothing in infinite being is capable of expressing the contrary, for all reality reflects the divine knowing. So when error speaks, we know that "I" has not said it and error is therefore powerless to touch us.
From the standpoint of the one Ego, all is I am. Although evil always seems to appear in terms of personal minds called he, she, it, or they, the truth is always expressed in terms of I am, the unity of Mind and its ideas. Jesus prayed, "I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one." John 17:23; In the practice of Christian Science Mind-healing, effective treatment is that which is given from the standpoint of God's allness, of the one, all-inclusive I am rejoicing in its eternal perfection, and so precluding the suggestion of anything other than perfection. If the healing work is done from this standpoint, it has the power of the Word. It does not return void, and the human adjustment is inevitable. Why? Because the mist of error melts in the sunlight of Truth to reveal more clearly that which already is.
The Father and Son, God and His Christ, are closer than close: they are at one. Mind and its ideas are inseparable. This Mind is the Father that doeth the works, that saves and redeems. It is the quantity and quality of all true existence. Mrs. Eddy writes, "Reflect this Life, and with it cometh the full power of being." Pulpit and Press, p. 4. Christian Science is the Science of being. Letting the Mind that is God be our Mind —the source of every thought and action— is accompanied by the power of the Word and all that this power implies.
