The St. Joseph observer., 1917-01-06
RESPONSIVENESS

Mortals little realize how they re-
| spond to passing outside influences
until Christian Science opens their
/ eyes to the suggestive nature of NOR.
tai mind We fondly believe we do
our own thinking until an understand
! ing of divine Mind dawns somewhat
upon human thought; and then we
see that much we have considered
| to be original thought has been moth
ing but the playing back and forth
upon itself, within and without, OF
mental suggestions common to all
mortals. This is clear to us when
we see the human mind as one; that
| is, that all mortals are born into GER
| tain sets of beliefs shared by all and
understood alike by all. There is one
common viewpoint, for instance, we
term fear; others we call munger,
cold, joy. grief, pain, pleasure, kind
ness, hatred, sympathy, cruelty, gen
erosity, greed, and so on. While each
individual may have different shades
of meaning and feeling in all these
things, we pretty generally come TO-
gether in one standard of belief about
them. And because all mortals unite
in one commonly understood accept
ance of certain human traits, t9nden-
cies, habits, and temptations, it is Ger.
tain that the indulgence of them ire
general pressure of belief in them,
rather than from original initiative
within Indeed, there is no sin orig
inal to the person. Though the forms
of sin may change and be legion out
wardly, the quality of sin as sin is
not new to any person or to any sen.
Grafton. Our temptations are the
temptations of our fathers and of our
presentday neighbors. Our good
nesses, too, do not originate in us, but
have been accomplished by many be-
fore us and are being exemplified by
many about u.s. Mortals in short, are
the output of the mortal mind, or NOR
tality, which counterfeits divine Mind,
God, and His pure and perfect crea-
tions And to get their freedom from
evil they must refuse response to any
suggestion from its impure sources;
must let spiritual understanding pro
test against all it promises threatens,
or performs.
We have all seen the marionette
dance at the end of a string pulled by
the master Of ceremonies or by any
would give it freedom. Christian
Science is here TO cut mortals free
from the dominating tyranny of evil.
All connection between man, spiritual
perfect man who is the likeness and
image of God, and the maelstrom of
evil, is severed by the understanding
that man is spiritual. Taking refuge
in this spiritual understanding we can
stand entirely separate from evil.
Cutting the string of our own belief
that matter and evil are man, or that
mortal mind has any power whatever
to withstand the understood presence
and power of divine Mind, we can
know our true selfhood spiritual man
and manhood intact in God, and so
refuse response TO the carelessly pass
ing hand or the maliciously deter
mined one that would try to awaken
in us an answer to its touch. When
hatred, greed, appetite, lust. fear or
the lesser evils of the average every
day human temperament and disposi.
tion seem to be part of our own be-
ing inherited or acquired, the task of
casting them out may seem difficult.
But when it is learned that God never
bestowed upon any man anything less
than good, that the mortal who seems
to be made up of errors and swayed
by them is not man, but a counterfeit