The Time for Thinkers

The time for thinkers has come” is the dynamic statement of Mrs. Eddy on the first page of the Preface to “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” and we do well if we consider whether we as individuals can be counted among the thinkers. The human mind is disinclined to exert itself, and, with its belief of minds many, would rather gather in predigested thought, or fashion its thinking after that of another human mind more active or greater than itself. In this day and age, however, when the opportunities for intellectual development are so extensive, one would expect active exercise of the thinking faculty. We have progressed somewhat, to be sure, but at the same time there is a tendency toward “a little folding of the hands to sleep,” while newspapers, magazines, lecturers, or our respected neighbors do our thinking for us, and we parrotlike voice their opinions.

Christian Scientists of all people should be thinkers. Most of them had to do a great deal of thinking before they accepted Christian Science. It meant leaving the religion of their fathers, or turning from agnosticism or skepticism to an understanding of God. It meant relying upon God for healing instead of upon more generally accepted material methods. It often meant estrangement from friends and relatives. Such steps as these could not be taken without deep thought or without turning to the Mind which is God for help and guidance.

Christian Science reveals religion not as something to be believed and accepted without reasoning or questioning, but as reasonable, understandable, and capable of proof. Christian Science when accepted and understood develops mental activity, broadens and uplifts thought. It teaches us not to look to human opinions for guidance or to material knowledge for wisdom, but above and beyond to the one Mind.

If Abraham had been content to sink into apathy and accept the religious opinions of those about him, he would never have left the country of his fathers so that he might better serve the one God. Later, when he was tempted to sacrifice Isaac, as it was the custom among the neighboring tribes to offer child sacrifices to Moloch, he had to exercise a great deal of clear reasoning to be sure what his God required of him. God had blessed him bountifully and in return he was ready to express his gratitude. Surely his God was worthy of as great a sacrifice as Moloch. Ought he not be willing to offer his God the best that he had, his dearest possession, Isaac? We can well imagine his mental struggle as he journeyed to the mountain in the land of Moriah to sacrifice Isaac. He was willing to do what was right. Yet he must have questioned what kind of god would demand such a sacrifice. He knew that his God was not a cruel God. He had found that God protected His people, provided for them, and directed them. Thus, as he was seeking to know God, it was clearly shown him that it was not the divine will that Isaac be slain. He learned that God did not desire a dead but a living sacrifice, and thereupon he took Isaac home and brought him up a living sacrifice to God.

Throughout the Bible we find thinkers. Joseph stands out, and Moses, and later the prophets. Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, and Jeremiah fearlessly denounced the idolatry, luxury, dishonesty, and decadence of their day. They would have been asleep to these evils had they not been thinkers. No one can read the writings of Paul without being impressed with the depth, clarity, comprehensiveness, and fearlessness of his thinking. Where did these men look for wisdom and understanding? To human beings about them? No. To the ever active, all–wise Mind. It was this which enabled them not to lose faith in humanity, but to rise above discouragement, above all the suggestion and apathy of their day.

Absolutely speaking, there is but one thinker, God, the source of all right thoughts, and these thoughts are continually passing to man. A man’s receptivity to God’s thoughts determines his capacity as a thinker. True thinking is not a process of the brain or of the so–called human mind, but is wholly spiritual and therefore ever active and indestructible. To be a thinker one must at least in a degree understand God; he must comprehend the true facts of being and acknowledge spiritual law. The thinker naturally rises above the suggestion and mesmerism of material living because he is dwelling in the consciousness of good.

Every day Christian Scientists are confronted with problems which demand active right reasoning. “For right reasoning there should be but one fact before the thought, namely, spiritual existence” (Science and Health, p. 492). Apathy and indifference will never work out problems. Dogma will never solve them, nor will vain disputations or mere words. Another cannot tell us how to solve our problem, nor can he do our thinking for us. When we are looking to persons for our opinions, we cannot be receptive to the divine idea. Each one of us must work out his problem with God. Another can help us only as he leads us to divine law.

When David volunteered to fight Goliath, Saul offered him his armor. In so doing he was urging upon David his own personal, material methods of defense. David refused the armor because he had not proved it. The armor that he had proved was the protecting power of God, and he turned to it again in the hour of need, saying, “The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine.” We, too, have a tried armor—spiritual understanding. We have as guides the Ten Commandments, the life of Jesus, and the Sermon on the Mount. Can we afford to substitute human opinions for these divine standards? We know that God will direct all right desires, that his angels will correct, vitalize, and govern our thinking, for on page 581 of Science and Health Mrs. Eddy tells us that angels are “God’s thoughts passing to man; spiritual intuitions, pure and perfect; the inspiration of goodness, purity, and immortality, counteracting all evil, sensuality, and mortality.”