Divine Science Its Principle and Practice
Return to Textbook IndexCopyright 1957 by Divine Science Church and College
Denver, Colorado
Made available here by the ministry of
Rev. Lawrence C. Terry, M.Msc., D.Min.
P. O. Box 68324
Indianapolis, IN 46268-0324
Chapter 5 – Story of Progress
Speaking generally, the thinking of man has run riot; it has been uncontrolled. Man has not known that he needed a fixed basis for his thinking. Usually he has based his thinking upon appearances and circumstances. When circumstances are made the basis for conclusions, and these conclusions are in turn the basis for further ones, then the whole structure is in danger because the foundation is unreliable. This method which ignores Truth, whether indulged in ignorantly or otherwise, bears bitter fruit; a sense of lack, ungratified desires accompanied by fear and doubt, and much confusion and turmoil in the affairs of man.
The truth is that the perfect Mind is implanted within each individual and can always be trusted to think true to the purpose of the Whole. When we, as individuals, trust the inner guidance of God-Mind which thinks perfect thoughts, we shall produce results in harmony with God’s plan for creations.
The acknowledgment of but one Mind, one thought, one word, all divine, is making it possible for man to say as Jesus did, “The words that I speak unto you, I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.” John 14:10 After practicing until the right habit of thought is established, man will, like Jesus, think as God thinks, speak as God speaks, work as God works. This leads to success. In this consciousness he will say as Jesus did, “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.” John 10:30
Divine Science predicates everything on Perfect Being and shows the true relation of all things to their Source. The true and full use of our spiritual and mental faculties is the means through which this relationship is enjoyed.
Keep in remembrance the truth that God is All in all.
Chapter 5
The Work of Thought
Commit thy words unto the Lord, and thy thought shall be established. Prov. 16:3
Questions to Alert Your Thinking
1. Where does everything have its true and permanent existence?
2. What trinity expresses the process of God-Mind creating?
3. Why is consciousness of Truth our great need?
4. List four changes necessary to enlighten man’s. thinking.
5. How can God be both personal and impersonal?
6. Upon what basis should our thinking rest?
To reason aright we must find cause. To understand creation, we must study its source. To know what is possible to man, we must search his origin and therein know his nature. To understand the work of thought, we must discover its function in the God-Mind and realize that the same laws apply on the plane of the individual.
Divine Science is based upon the principle that God is All in all. This One is God, the Creator; God, the creative action; and God, the creation – a trinity in unity. The value of Divine Science lies in its unfailing principle, its never-changing basis, its exactness, certainty, and universal applicability. Divine Science teaches that creation is Spirit expressing; that creation is Spirit-Substance in manifestation. It explains the law and order of perfect Mind in this work of self-manifestation; it reveals the method by which invisible Life, invisible Source, and invisible Spirit-Substance are made visible. It teaches the method by which the Creator reveals Himself in creation, known as the law of expression, the law of the trinity expressing as unity. This is the law of the one perfect Mind and it manifests throughout all creation for it is one law. Man then must necessarily know Truth and understand the principle of unity in order to experience the fulfillment of law within himself.
An infinite Source and Cause must be one which contains perfect intelligence and limitless idea. Everything in existence is contained within the infinite Source as idea. Idea is the natural product of Mind, and consciousness is the knowledge of its power to carry that idea into visible form. Without idea Mind would have naught of which to think; and without consciousness it would not know anything of which to think. Therefore they trinity of divine Mind combines these three which work as one – Mind, Idea, and Consciousness. These three compose one perfect intelligence ready for expression. The Creator as infinite Mind, the Source, is God the Father. The perfect idea inherent in God-Mind, which is to be created or pressed forth, is God the Son. That knowledge which enables Mind to carry out its idea is perfect consciousness, or God the Holy Ghost. Hence, the Universal or Absolute Trinity is all pure Spirit, Absolute and Uncreate, Eternal and Changeless, and is the basic urge underlying all life:
Father, Son, Holy Ghost
Mind, Idea, Consciousness
The process by which the Creator reveals or produces creation is called the LAW OF EXPRESSION. By this law it is seen that like produces like, or that which is born of Spirit is Spirit. This law shows the relationship existing between Cause and effect, between God, the Creator, and God, the creation. It works from the Invisible to the visible, from Principle to example, from the Inner to the outer. This is universally true and as we study we shall see that it works in the same way on the plane of the individual.
Infinite Being, Spirit, is the state of perfection known as the Creator. Its creation is the manifestation of itself and this manifestation must be as perfect as is the Source. God is infinite Mind and manifests as thought and word. God is infinite Spirit and manifests as living soul and body. Thus by the law of expression we have these important trinities:
Mind, thought, word
Spirit, living soul, body
Since by law like begets like, the living soul and body that comprise individual man are image and likeness of Spirit. The image of God is God expressed in individuality and as visible form; it is infinite Idea expressed and expressing itself in mentality and visibility. The likeness of God means that all inherencies and qualities of God, all His ideas and potentialities, are implanted within Hi image. The nature of the image is exactly like the nature of its source; that is, the nature of man is exactly like the nature of God. God is Life, Love, Truth; the image of God is life, love, truth. Infinite Source brings forth after its kind that which is inherent within itself. God is constantly expressing man in His image and likeness. Man then is not something that has Spirit, but is Spirit. He is not something that has body, but is body. The law of expression reveals the body to be Spirit expressing; that is, substance, as vine, branch, and fruit are one and the same substance. If the vine is grape, then the branch is grape and the fruit is grape. There is but one Substance invisible and visible. The substance of the vine is not changed by coming forth into ranch and fruit; the Substance of infinite Source is not changed by coming forth into the individualized expression of itself – MAN.
The All is Good and the All is here. God is omnipresent and we are in His presence from everlasting to everlasting. This proves the unity of God and man, for man’s existence is right where God is, I in God and God in me. Man could not exist as the reverse of God. This new interpretation of life leads to a consciousness of what the Real is, and of the true nature of all existence. If we rely upon the real nature of what is, we have a fixed basis for peace, and a source of faith.
Let us review in order to clarify our thinking and bring about the realization that “I and the Father are one.” It is well to study carefully this law of expression, the divine order of creation, which explains so exactly how it is possible and cannot be otherwise, that man is made “in the image and after the likeness” of the Father
GOD IS THE ONE MIND, THE SOURCE OF EVERYTHING.
ALL THINGS HAVE THEIR ORIGIN IN THIS ONE MIND.
MIND HAS IDEA.
MIND’S ACTION IS THINKING.
THINKING BRINGS THE IDEA INTO THE VISIBLE, OR “THE WORD MADE VISIBLE.”
IT IS LAW THAT LIKE PRODUCES LIKE.
“In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God.” John 1:1 Creation is the word of the Eternal made visible, or the word become flesh. Spirit manifests as flesh, for though the form is changed the Substance remains ever the same. This is the new revelation, even the visible form is made of Spirit-Substance. We may have a dim realization of this at the present time but the truth is forever awaiting our recognition. Our divine nature can never be lost, and sooner or later all shall awaken to its presence within them. Let us study and contemplate the truth until full revelation (of the Truth) dawns upon our minds.
Although Truth is omnipresent and changeless, thought “we live, and move, and have our being” in God, the All_Good, yea, thought we dwell in the Kingdom of Heaven but lacking many good things, and losing the blessedness that is ours. Consciousness of Truth then is our great need, not that more good may come to us, not that we may have more strength or wisdom or life or health sent to us, but that our comprehension may be opened to see that All is within our very nature and that all God is, is forever ours.
As we reason from the order of this One in Self-expression, the conclusion is that there is but One All. Since all things are produced by the power of God’s creative action, the result is an exact image of the idea of the Creator, and never is it otherwise. The Father is the universal. The son is the individual. In and of universal Substance, Life, Intelligence, and Power the individual is formed. Hence, each individual is a center of Life’s activity, of Mind’s intelligence and power, and is of the purity of infinite Substance. And while each individual must acknowledge that “My Father (the universal) is great than I,” yet each may also say “I am exactly what the Universal is. There is naught else to be, since man is the individualized expression of God.”
The purpose of creation is that the Creator may express, and the purpose of individual creation is that the Creator may be expressed through and by the individual. Man is created to carry on the work of the Creator and he should know that he, too, is a triune being, that he is cause, action, and result on his plane of existence, in his world of experiences, conditions, and affairs. The law of expression works through man as certainly as it does in God’s process of creation.
As we study we understand that it is logical for man to be a triune being for as we look at nature we discover many units which are made up of three phases. All life on the planet is classified as mineral, vegetable or animal; the very atoms into which so-called matter is organized manifest in terms of three-ness, protons, neutron, and electrons; the family comprises father, mother, and offspring; the plant is composed of root, stalk, and fruit or flower; the functioning process of any of man’s five senses consists of stimulus, response, and reaction over nerves which are themselves made up of neurons, axons, and dendrites. There are innumerable other illustrations of such trinities, but these are sufficient to help us understand the importance of the three-in-one principle upon which all creation is based.
Of course we cannot in truth divide life, but to give clarity to our thinking we may divide our concept of life into God and man, Invisible and visible, Absolute and relative, Universal and individual. As we have seen that God functions through the Absolute Trinity – Father, Son, and Holy Ghost – or through the trinity of divine Mind – Mind, Idea, Consciousness – we now find that man on a lower level of awareness, the plane of the individual, functions through a similar trinity – the Super-conscious, conscious, and subconscious levels of mind. Each individual, being an expression of the Father, possesses for his use these three levels of mind:
Superconscious, or Christ Mind, the Father expressing on the plane of the individual.
Conscious level of mind, the son expressing on the plane of the individual.
Subconscious level of mind, the Holy Ghost manifesting on the plane of the individual.
This truth of being gives man power to say “I am the thinker, the thought, and the word.” Every object that is made, every book that is written, every picture that is painted began as idea in mind before being expressed visibly. There is no visible thing but had its source, its form, and its substance in the invisible. While man apparently originates an idea, in reality he receives it from infinite Intelligence because he sought it and was ready to receive it. He brings it into expression by the inherent power of his consciousness. Man’s thinking then is creative action and should have a reliable base from which to operate. Unless that base is scientifically true to principle, God’s law of good, man produces varied conditions in his life. The one Thinker is God; the one God-Mind produces ideas in man. Whether man thinks about ideas truly or falsely the results will come forth according to his thinking and will manifest scientifically by the law of expression in his experiences, conditions, and affairs.
Without doubt the majority of people have proved to themselves the effect of thought when learning to ride a bicycle or to steer an automobile. How easily one steers directly into the very object he wishes to avoid if he looks at that object and concentrates his thought upon it. Every beginner learns by experience, or by the good advice of an experienced “steerer,” to look away from that which he wishes to avoid and to fix his eye and his attention upon the place where he wishes to go in order to reach it safely. The same law applies to our thinking: look away from appearances of evil and keep “eye” or thought fixed upon the good we wish, and we shall reach the goal. Hitherto we have not known that the goodness, truth and love of God-Mind is set in action by our thinking and speaking, but such is God’s law. All good is ours of which to think and speak, so why waste opportunity by any thinking or speaking which is contrary to Good?
Not until we acknowledge the infinite Source as the I that I am are we in a condition to think and act divinely; for we shall always think and act exactly in accordance with that which we believe ourselves to be and to be related to. Not until we hold ourselves individually as divine Being can we solve the problems of life satisfactorily, or enter the way that leads to knowledge of Life Eternal which Jesus gave to the world.
The rue realization of oneness is knowing the true nature of the Creator and creation, and conforming our ways to it. It is being lifted up to know that all that really is, is Good. It enables us to act justly and correctly in unity with the whole of power and correctly in unity with the whole of power and the all of Good according to scientific law. Many is one with God before or above all law, but the law of expression shows the method by which man is to express himself in individual life, through truthful thinking and speaking. It explains to him how he has control over all conditions and how he may show forth his Perfect State in all things. Man is one with God before he is born of God, and he can never be outside of God. “I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed.” Jer. 2:21 Man is to cultivate this right seed by his correct thinking and thus fulfill the purpose for which he was created, to be a fixed center of action in the Infinite One. Thus man started out, so to speak, with unlimited possibilities of Good. His Eternal State is Perfection for God is his Being or Nature which is changeless.
As long as man does not realize that he is an individualized center of God-activity and that he is to share in fulfilling the Father’s purpose of bringing love, peace, harmony, and good will to all, he is prone to use his thinking power for his own selfish purposes. As long as man’s thinking is based upon anything less than God’s idea of Good, he will experience confusion, turmoil, and adverse circumstances in his world of affairs, for as Emerson says, “Law obeyed or disobeyed brings opposite results.”
Man has unknowingly made his own conditions of life and affairs. He is to work out his state of perfection, and this is done by recognition of his true Self through right thinking and right speaking. The same order by which God is manifesting in existence must be maintained in man’s thinking in solving the problems of life and in demonstrating his true freedom. The law of expression fully understood is of the greatest value to us. It is the way by which we have come forth; and we need to apply it for the purpose of realizing our true and harmonious relationship, not only with our source and Cause, but with humanity. The Source of all idea being God, the omnipresent Mind, then the true mental image of an idea will always bring realization of that idea, and it will be actualized in the spoke word and in our dealings with each other. When God-Idea is brought forth into form it is the Real expressed and known.
Fellow student, by now your own thoughts have come to the place where they see that if thinking turns aside and busies itself with outer “causes” it fails in its work and gains nothing, for the outer cannot supply anything to thought. It is the work of thought to look within, to gather from within, to be illumined from within; then does it become the outlet for Divine fullness, just as the branches of the tree draw from the tree all the life and substance that is to make good fruit. There is but one laws. It is omnipresent. The work of thought is to recognize and carry from the inner to the outer all the good that infinite Love holds for its offspring.
Our thought can be enlightened in truth only by turning to the Christ within to unfold a consciousness of our oneness with the Father; a realization that we are extensions of Him, functioning here to carry on His work of love; a knowledge of truth that is based upon the Eternal; an understanding of changeless Life and Being that reveals Spirit as presence and power. These are to be the light of our thinking. We must remain true to our basis, the omnipresence of God; know what we are and fully believe in what we are, and with faith in the knowledge that like produces like, trust what we are. Thought is to be diligent in perceiving knowledge of one Presence and one Power; to hold to the consciousness of ever-present fullness; to form the habit of thinking of love, life, purity and perfection.
Thought is to recognize the unity of spirit and body and to declare fullness of life and perfection for all things. True thoughts partake of the real nature of the Source and give form to divine ideas and attitudes. “By their fruits ye shall know them.” Matt. 7:20
As important as thought is, we must remember that that which represents the nature of Being cannot control or guide Being; consequently neither thought nor word can rightly control or guide. “I am the Way” should be understood to mean that the right way is being the Way and expressing what I am. I am before I think or speak. I precede by thought therefore I cannot be the result of my thought. Thought has power to express the Self but not to make it. What I am cannot change; it waits forever upon recognition. Our divine nature – our real Self – is the Christ our “hope of glory.” Jesus declared this real Self when he said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” This divine nature is a universal Presence saying “Lo, I am with you always.” Matt. 28:20 As soon as we recognize it, it is our glory, and then we shall have true control, which is doing as the Father does, being the Way and demonstrating the God-Self.
We are now accepting Omnipresence as our basis of thought, and the law of expression as showing the exact place and work of thought. The power of thought is derived from Mind; its substance also comes from Mind. We assume the responsibility of controlling thought simply by thinking correctly; of controlling words by speaking true to principle, and of controlling deeds by acting in accord with the unity of the spirit. When this is done we shall be able to perceive and read the silent and invisible language or idea that lies back of all nature, the language which is in the beginning, before thought, prior to expression. The highest truths of the Unmanifest will reveal themselves to the perception of one whose mental condition is purified by perfect thought.
May we rejoice in the beauty of this truth which is becoming more and more clear to us. May the light of inspiration which glows in the words of the founders of Divine Science be the spark which will set our hearts aflame, bringing realization of harmony to ourselves and others. Listen inwardly as Malinda Cramer instructs us in these forceful words:
“Let us cease to be prodigal in our conclusions and beliefs and awaken to our Reality. Each of us, being the thinker of true thoughts, can change his way of believing and know himself divine, a son or daughter of God, and know that his life is God. Then, think of your life as perfect, unlimited, and unending. There is but One Life. This is Truth, which to know, makes free and brings peace that passeth understanding. What is it to find the Kingdom of Heaven and dwell therein but to get understanding and to become fully conscious that we live, move, and have our Being in God? To thus know that the Kingdom of Heaven is a hand is to think, speak, and act, that is, to live in the realization of the power and glory of Being.
“Our work resolves itself into this: we are to make the thought, love, and motive of Spirit our thought, love, and motive, and thus produce the fruits of Spirit – effects which harmonize with the Supreme All. Awaken to thine own inheritance of pure and perfect Being; lay hold upon it, it is thine to use and to enjoy. Be true in thought, and free from anxiety and fear; look steadfastly into the Unity of Being, the perfect law of liberty, and thou shalt see that all that is, is divine. ‘Be still and know that I am God.’ ”
Questions For Review and Discussion
1. List all the trinities mentioned in this chapter, then think of three other trinities. Discuss each.
2. Explain in your own words the expression, “Man is made in the image and likeness of God.”
3. Discuss this statement: Our conditions in life are the automatic fulfillment of our states of consciousness.
4. As Divine Scientists what is the basis of our thinking?
5. May one right say, “I am what my thoughts have made me.”?
6. What gave you the greatest thrill in this chapter?
* * * * *
Divine Science – Its Principle and Practice from the writings of Nona Brooks and Malinda Cramer