Arizona republican., 1908-02-10

of belief and becomes exact in its baS-
 is and teaching, and science takes on
 the hues of divinity.
 BASIS OF CHRISTIAN SCI.
 ENcE PRACTICE That human
 thought has not always been correct in foundation is self-evi- dent when We remember that there are many contradictory opinions and be- liefs concerning God. some of them unreasonable. unnatural and even grotesque. If the right idea is to be gained, wrong beliefs must be put aside. Christian Science gives defini- tions to God which are found to be universally acceptable and satisfying to human reason. It declares that GCd, as Cause and Creator, must be infinite Intelligence. and 1t makes this fact clear to us and available through the use of the word Mind as a syno- nym for the word God IL declares that God is Mind and that Mind is God. IL never confuses the use of the word Mind in this relationship. how ever, with what is ordinarily called a mOrtals mind, supposedly dependent upon matter or brain for intelligence but on tho contrary. uses 1t always in the divine sense. The thought of God as humanly personal has made His Omnipresence seem impossible, but when we understand that He is Mind His Omnipresence is natural. reason able. and real to us. In fact. it is clear that this constitutes the actuali- ty of all true existence. Christian Science therefore in this process of correcting human beliefs and opinions and giving a scientific basis for relig- ion, takes away the old personal thought concerning God and establish es better one. Suppose one who thinks that God is personal in the same sense that human beings are should possess the skill to depict his thought upon canvas or paper, and were to do so. And then suppose that he were to kneel down and pray to that picture. The act would seem ab- surd to every one who might behold it. The comment would be. Why. what is the use of doing that? That picture isn't God. It cant answer prayer nor do anything else" After all. is the situation changed when one not possessing the ability to outline picture of a person, still continues to think of that picture and prays to that mental image? mental image is no more God than is a material picture and 1t is no wonder that hu- manity's prayers have not generally been answered-prayers uttered to a mental image.
 Christian Science shows that the personality of God is infinite and can not be depicted or outlined by any human being, nor are we losing any thing in changing our thought upon this point. but rather gaining every thing. One feels that he doesn't know how to pray because he learns that this mental image is not God. should remember that he did not know how to pray when he supposed that it was, and that he can lose nothing. either in relation to prayer or to God. by get ting rid of a false belief concerning both. Furthermore, Christian Science makes prayer more personally avail able because 1t gives the right idea of God which becomes personal know ledge, revealing mans unity with Him. Christian Science also shows that to regard God as changeable or variable has tended to separate us from Him, and has nullified faith. It declares the unchanging. invariable. and con stant nature of God-shows that He is good always. and never knows any thing unlike Himself. It uses a word to broaden. amplify. and uplift our thought, and that word is Principle. and 1t uses this word interchangeably with God. This necessarily includes the discernment that God is good. and this word Good is used in Christian Science as a substantive and inter changeable with the word God. Let us remember in all of this that words cannot in any way affect God or change Him in the least. These words and others used in Christian Science are invited to help mortals and do so in proportion as they are un- derstood. This word Good is an effec- tual help in relieving one of the wrong concept of Gods personality and oth- CT incorrect notions concerning Him. Many people have been enabled to take their first steps in the Christian religion through understanding that God is Good and that Good is God. Many intelligent and educated persons have not been able to accept the pre- vailing thought regarding Gods per sonality and mystical theories involved in the belief that although he is infi- nitely good He also provides for evil. belief which is more or less promul- gated by scholastic theology, and such persons have therefore often consider ed themselves to be outside of the pale of religion. Yet one never encounters such a person without finding that he will cheerfully admit his belief in good. Although declaring perhaps that he knows nothing of God. because of the association of these old material con-