Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1918-02-27
sick thoughts, but perfect and healthful

sick thoughts, but perfect and healthfu
and holy.
We all of us accept the statemen
that God is wisdom, but it is better tC
say that God is Mind, because wisdom
is never anything but the expression O.
| Mind. If we admit infinite wisdom, w,
must admit that it is the emanation oil
an infinite Mind.
Let us illustrate the divine Mind b.
using the ordinary conception of hui
| man mind as an example You say youl
friend has fine mind. You say yor
| know this because he has lot of fin,
| ideas which he expresses. You have
never. seen his mind, but you have
known the expression of his mind IL
| ideas. If he never moved a muscle
never spoke a word, you would rightly
conclude that there was no mind there
So a mind to be mind must be filled
with ideas, and an idea by virtue ct
being an idea must be expressed. 1t i,
impossible to conceive of a mind filled
with ideas. yet uneXpressed, for a MIND
with no expression is not a mind, but
| blank
Now we have evidence OF infinite wis
dom in the universe. and the evidence
of infinite wisdom predicates an infinite
Mind. The infinite Mind is filled with
IN infinite number of ideas or thoughts
which constitute its wisdom. These
ideas, because they are ideas, cannot be
separated from the Mind which con
tains them, and it is the activity, the
reflection, the manifestation of these
ideas which constitute man and the uni
verse.
MINDS IDEAS ARE PERFECT
As Gods ideas we exist in Him, =
perfect, spiritual, and immortal, - and
because we exist in Him the Scriptures
declares that In him we live, and
move, and have our being
There is a further quality of an idea
that it might be we'll to consider. An
idea has no ability TO do anything or
to be anything other than just the idea
of the mind in which it exists. 1t can
not change itself or become more or less
or different than that Mind intended it
should be, for it has no volition of its
own, and must of necessity express ex-
actly the qualities of the mind whose
idea it is Man is tie perfect idea OF
God, and as an idea of God he has no
volition of his own. He cannot be sick
or choose to do evil, for if he could
change from being Gods perfect idea he
would be greater than God, because he
would have spoiled the infinite design
frustrated the divine purpose. Now in
finite Mind is Infinite Spirit and infinite
Life. In expressing the perfection OF
infinite Mind, man expresses infinite
Life and infinite Spirit. and as an ex-
preston of infinite Life man must be
eternal. while as an expression of in
finite Spirit man must be spiritual and
not material. Man, then, as Gods idea
Gods image and likeness, has all the
qualities of God, and not single quality
which is not of God; therefore he is
healthful and holy; spiritual, immortal
perfect.
MORTAL IDEAS UNREAL
Such conclusion as this leaves nc
room for a mortal, material, sick, and
sinful man, yet we have the problem 81
materially with its sicknesses and woes
to deal with as false belief to lie
eradicated.
Nothing seems more real to the hui
most eminent physicists of the present
day are quite at one in saying that it is
impossible to prove that there is such
a thing as matter. They say that mat
ter is a function of something outside
itself, the expression of energy; and
this is just another way of saying that
matter is an expression of thought
Christian Science agrees with them in
saying that matter is an expression of
thought, but points out that matter is
an expression not of right thought, but
OF wrong thought; that all right thought,
Gods thought, real thought, must par
take of Gods nature, and is therefore
spiritual, not material, and is expressed
in spiritual things, not material things.
The whole material universe, with all
its sin, sickness, and death, is just the
sense of the opposite, - the sense of the
absence of that which God made.
MORTAL REALITY ILLUSTRATED.
Suppose a man had never had his
sight. and sight came to him while he
was in a dark room. He would not
know that he had his sight, nor would
he know that he was in the dark, for il
is impossible for one to gain sense OF
darkness without first being conscious
of light But let him be taken into the
light, and he would see Then when he
was returned to the darkness, he would
sense it as darkness, = the absence OF
light. So it is impossible for there to
be sense of darkness except as there
is first consciousness of light. This is
equally true of strength and weakness
1t is just as impossible for there to come
sense of weakness, except as there is
first a consciousness of strength. II
there had never been a consciousness OF
strength as part of what God created
there would never have been sense
of weakness.
So the moment when God said, Let
there be light" which is equivalent &c
saving, Let there be strength, and LEI
there be health and let there be hoii-
ness, was the first moment wherein
there could have come sense of dark
ness, and weakness, and sickness, and
sin. For every good and perfect thing
which God has made, there has in like
manner come sense of its absence, =
an opposite, lie. without reality or
substance.
When God said, Let us make man
in our image, after our likeness" Sc
that man was made in His likeness, spir-
itual and perfect and immortal, there
came sense of the absence of that spir-