by Ernest Holmes

Science of Mind in its broadest and truest sense includes the best in science, religion, and philosophy. Science of Mind is not a personal opinion, nor is it a special revelation. It is the result of the best thought of the ages. It borrows much of its light from others, but in so doing does not rob anyone, for truth is universal and never personal. We need the entire revelation of the whole world, and even with this we shall have little enough.

The universe is impersonal. It gives alike to all. It is no respecter of persons. It values each alike. The philosopher, the priest, the professor, the humanitarian, the empire builder, each has caught some gleam of the eternal glory.

Science of Mind does not scoff at the works of medical science, for instance. Science of Mind is a complement to medical science and when so understood and practiced will help heal the world of its physical infirmities.

The world of knowledge needs to be knit together and not pulled apart. We have no objection to any form of healing. What we insist on is that there can be no permanent healing of the body without a correspondingly permanent poise in the mental and emotional life. Psychosomatic medicine has shown that mental disturbances, conscious or subjective, produce physical reactions in the body. If the body is to be permanently well, one's mental life must be creative, peaceful, and happy. This is the purpose of mental healing, whether it be approached from the psychological or the metaphysical angle.

Science of Mind teaches that there is a favorable physical reaction, an effect, which follows a pattern of thought incorporating ideas of health, for the law of cause and effect governs everything. Similarly, it is held that right thinking will result in a greater experience of success and abundance. A successful person thinks success, and the law of mind that reacts has no other choice than to produce an effect corresponding to the causative idea.

The road to freedom lies not through mysteries or occult performances, but through the intelligent use of natural forces and laws. The law of mind is a natural law in the spiritual world. We need not ask why this is so. There can be no reason given as to why the truth is true. We do not create laws and principles but discover and make use of them.

God, the universal life-force and energy running through everything, is an intelligent presence pervading all space; a self-existent cause; a perfect unit, a complete wholeness.

The unthinking would believe that God keeps books and checks up on the wrongdoing of each individual member of the human race, and that some are sent to heaven and some to hell and all for the glory of God. Each has believed in the kind of God who best fitted their personal ideas, or in the idea of God that has been imposed upon them by ignorant or superstitious leaders.

But always there has been the voice of those crying in the wilderness of superstition, ignorance, doubt, and fear; the voice of those who have thought things through to conclusions that have been independent of race beliefs, of the subtleties of religious dogma, and of theological superstitions. These have been the way showers of humanity and millions have lighted candles from their flames. But the world progresses slowly; evolution and the growth of knowledge and wisdom is a process of time and experience.

In principle the great religions of the world do not differ as much as they appear to. Stripped of their accumulations of adornments and observances, and the encrustation's of interpretations, it is found that each acknowledges that there is one central Power, Force, or God, which is self-existent; and it is from this one power that all things emanate. All of life flows from it and is a part of it. Nothing can exist separate from it. The Christian interpretation of the ultimate nature of the creative Source of the universe places more emphasis on the life of the individual as being an integral part of the one life.

But even in the Christian religion, much of its real meaning is hidden by words that are misleading and symbols that but few understand. We could scarcely find a greater riddle to solve than the meaning of the "Holy Trinity." Also, most people either reject the Bible entirely or accept it totally and literally. Both these methods are mistakes.

Religion is our idea of God, and the Bible is a written declaration of the belief in God held by a great people-the Jews. It is, in many respects, the greatest book ever written and does truly point a way to eternal values. But it is only one explanation and cannot be considered the only light on religion; for there are many others, which, taken together, weave the story of truth into a complete and unified pattern.

The many sacred books of the East constitute other Bibles which point ways to the truth; but each is only another way and cannot be considered to be the way. All peoples have had their religions and have had their Bibles; all have pointed a way to ultimate values, but can we say that any of them has really pointed the way? It is unreasonable to suppose that any one group encompasses all the truth and alone can reveal the way of life for all others.

Science of Mind reads every Bible and gleans the truths contained therein. It studies all peoples' knowledge and draws from each that which is self-evident. Only that which is self-evident can stand the test of reason and time. Without criticism, without judgment, but by true discrimination, that which is true and provable may be discovered and put to practical use.

We should take truth wherever we find it, making it our own. Borrowing knowledge of reality from all sources, taking the best from every study, Science of Mind brings together the highest enlightenment of the ages.

We note that through the ages people have been healed by the prayer of faith, which is a practice of every religion. There is a law governing this possibility, else it never could happen. It is the business of Science of Mind to view the facts, evaluate the causes, and in so doing provide a definite knowledge of the law which governs the facts.

What do we do when we pray? We talk to God. Where do we talk to God? We talk to God in our own mind, through our own thought and feeling. It is quite impossible for us to talk to God outside ourselves, for we cannot go outside ourselves. Whatever God we talk to is our own thought or approached through our own thinking, feeling, and knowing.

When we ask God for abundance, we ask God in our own mind. God answers through our affairs. But some have asked God for money for some worthy purpose and have not yet received an answer to their prayers. Indeed, to be perfectly truthful, can we suppose that God is or can be more interested in one good deed than in another? This would be dangerously near making the divine Being more limited in thought than we are.

But the fact remains that many prayers relative to worthy purposes have been answered. It must be that the answer to prayer is in the prayer when it is prayed and not in the inclination or the disinclination of God to answer some and not others. God answers prayer according to law and order, the immutable law and order of the universe.

Prayer is a thought, a belief, a feeling, arising within the mind of the one praying. This feeling becomes a complete belief and a perfect acceptance when the mind is most completely in tune with the Infinite. The mind is most completely in tune with the Infinite when the emotions are most constructively aroused. The highest faith comes from the greatest spiritual awareness.

The prayer of faith is answered because the prayer of faith admits of an answer, while the prayer of unbelief does not admit of one. Perfect faith is an unqualified acceptance of the desired result; and this acceptance is a mental attitude which cannot be shaken by any objective evidence to the contrary. The prayer of faith looks through the apparent condition to a perfect fulfillment. Prayer is a mental attitude aspiring toward God as the great giver of all. Faith is the acceptance that God has given or is now giving. Prayer and faith are both mental attitudes. A continual prayer of faith repudiates all that contradicts the desired end and culminates in positive acceptance.

When prayer removes distrust and doubt and enters the field of mental certainty, it becomes faith; and the universe is built on faith.

The mind will soar to new heights when fired by a potent constructive emotion. This explains why people with high spiritual emotions generally receive the most direct answers to their prayers. It matters not what stimulates the emotion so long as it is constructive and agrees with its ideal. The intellect is a cold thing and a merely intellectual idea will never stimulate thought in the same manner that a spiritual idea does.

It so happens, or the universe is so organized, that it is quite impossible for us to arouse the highest emotions and the most creative ones without using the highest ideals. These ideals are always what we call religious or spiritual. But spirituality and religion are not to be thought of as either unnatural or supernatural. Spirituality means dependence on spirit. Religion concerns beliefs in God. Both are normal and quite natural to the average person.

God gives some more than others because some accept more than others. The divine Giver knows nothing about size. Prayer should build up a greater acceptance of God's life, truth, and action; and when it does the response will be commensurate with higher acceptance. When the whole emotion is aroused and the mental acceptance is complete, the answer will be certain. The law has not changed, but has responded in a different way.

The universal Mind contains all knowledge. It is the potential ultimate of all things. To it, all things are possible. To us, as much is possible as we conceive, according to law. Should all the wisdom of the universe be poured over us we should yet receive only that which we are ready to understand. This is why some draw one type of knowledge and some another and all from the same source-the source of all knowledge. The scientist discovers the principle of science, the artist embodies the spirit of art, the saint finds spiritual awareness, all because they have courted the particular presence of some definite concept. Each state of consciousness taps the same source but has a different receptivity. In this way the universe is infinite, the possibility of differentiating is limitless.

We waste much time in arguing over things that cannot be answered. When we have arrived at the ultimate, that is the ultimate; it is the way the thing works. Therefore we have a right to say that there is a law involved and that this law executes our word or prayer. We discover laws, find out how they work, and then begin to use them. Therefore, we say it is the nature of thought and of creative law to be this way.

I would say that law is an attribute of God. God did not make law; it coexists with the Eternal. The infinite law and the infinite intelligence are but two sides of the infinite unity; one balances the other and they are the great personal and impersonal principles in the universe. Involution is the inworking of the conscious and the volitional, and evolution is the outworking of that which is tangible and mechanical.

We can no more do without spirituality than we can do without food, shelter, or clothing. Indeed, the spiritual instinct is so firmly implanted that it is inseparable from life and living. According to our belief in God will be our estimate of life here and hereafter. To believe in a God of vengeance is one thing, but to believe in a God of love and a just law of cause and effect is another.

We live in a universe of spirit and of law. From the one we are to draw inspiration; from the other we are to utilize power. Each is a complement to the other and both are necessary to existence.

To believe in a just law of cause and effect, carrying with it a punishment or a reward, is to believe in righteousness. To believe my eternal damnation for any soul is to believe in an infinite monstrosity, contradicting the integrity of the universe, and repudiating any eternal loving-kindness inherent in God.

To feel that we suffer for our mistakes is justice, but to feel that our mistakes are eternal is to be already in the suppositional hell of a false theology. A sin is a mistake, a mistake is a sin; both will ultimately be done away with.

To believe that evil draws as many benefits as goodness from the storehouse of God is unthinkable, and to feel that some are foredoomed forever to be evil is also unthinkable. It denies solidarity to the universe and creates a house eternally divided against truth.

All truth is our truth. No one can rob us of our own soul, and our spirit is already one with the eternal goodness. Everyone's belief is good insofar as it is in line with reality. We have no controversies with anyone. As we claim freedom, so we extend its privileges to everyone else; we will give and accept on no other terms.

The past is behind us and whatever doubt it may have held is gone with it. The future is before us, bright with prospects; the eternal sun of righteousness is ever ascending, never to descend. Let us look toward the high goal of lasting attainment, fearless and happy. Let us live in the present, looking neither backward in horror, nor forward with apprehension, but looking into the present with joy-"abiding in faith."

Religious Science is a correlation of laws of science, opinions of philosophy, and revelations of religion applied to the needs and aspirations of humankind.

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