Since last week’s lesson, where Mrs. Eddy said, “Jesus was the offspring of Mary’s self-conscious communion with God.” (S&H, p. 29) I have been thinking about what that state of consciousness would be like. So when this following statement was in this lesson, I felt I needed to get a better handle on it.
13. 390
Rise in the conscious strength of the spirit of Truth to overthrow the plea of mortal mind, alias matter, arrayed against the supremacy of Spirit.
This led me first to this definition of “conscious” from the Webster’s 1828 Dictionary:
Possessing the faculty or power of knowing ones own thoughts or mental operations.
Then I came across this, from pages 85 to 86 of the 1936 Primary Class by Bicknell Young:
One need not be afraid to treat as the divine Mind would treat. The only genuine humility is, “I and my Father are One,” as Jesus said. There is no other, never was any other, and never will be any other. Modesty about all we do, but never modesty about the Science or about our understanding. The understanding is the divine Christ. We can’t be modest about the Christ, crucifying him anew. The sons of God live and move and have their being in conscious at-one-ment with eternal, changeless Life. Immanuel is ever-present in human consciousness, and that is the thing that is touched in treatment. Human qualities have their being because there is something. Good qualities spring from something real.
Your affirmations in treatment must not be from the standpoint of mortal mind that knows about God, but from the standpoint of Mind declaring itself. Not that you may know about that which is Love, that which is true, but that you may know Truth itself. Christian Science requires of the one who would demonstrate it clearness of thought, intelligence, and the ability to carry thought to conclusions that are final. To do this, something more than mere intellectuality is required. The pure logic of Science requires the recognition of the divine nature, and the divine nature cannot be recognized by means of mere intellectuality. Our own thought has to be divine; it has to be Love; it has to be answering Principle; it has to be Life. It is not enough that it should be about these things; it must act directly as Life. The thought must be as if it were Truth speaking, as though it were God Himself.
This all has given me even more to ponder and pray about and aspire toward. I am very grateful for these lessons and all this church has to support the learning of this wonderful Science. Thank you!