Horse

I well remember when for the first time I understood that all things of which I am conscious is thought, and never external to or separate from what I call my mind; that what I call my mind is not always seeing things as they actually are.

Once, while at Mrs. Eddy’s, one of her beautiful horses was in a serious claim. This was reported to her and, in substance she said, “What the horse is to you is not actually the way the idea is.”

Mrs. Eddy showed us that the so-called human mind holds within itself its own self-made concept of horse, and attaches to its concept horse its own qualities of being, sick or well. She also showed us that this one so-called mortal mind gives to each of us its own and the same concept horse. She then showed us that this beautiful horse, which we all so much admired, was wholly within the realm of consciousness as image or idea. She showed us that the divine Mind was the only power which can formulate an idea and that the divine Mind was the substance and character of every particular idea, and that the divine Mind was all there was to what the human mind called a horse. She showed us that we did not need to heal a horse, but we did need to restore our vision from that which was untrue to that which was true in the realm of consciousness.

The work was not to be done on the horse; the only horse there was, was already perfect, and the true idea horse was the one and same horse in each individual consciousness. We thoroughly understood that the horse which we saw as material and sick was to be seen as it was. We were not to change a sick horse into a well horse, but we were to change our thought from belief to Truth, and we also thoroughly understood that the divine Mind was the I or Ego present that we were calling the personal I; and this divine mind, present, was conscious of and was seeing its own contents or ideas or horse. The horse did not need healing. Mrs. Eddy only restored our vision to the truth or fact that the only Mind present was aware of its own perfection, and with the restoration of our vision from that of belief to Truth, the horse appeared to us as it always had been.

This was my first clear apprehension of the fact that a Christian Scientist had nothing to do with effects. If a Christian Scientist has the divine Mind present as the only Mind, this Mind itself sees and is aware of its own, identity or effect. I understood for the first time that if I allowed the so-called human mind to have place, then the human mind would see and know its own imperfect concept, a sick horse needing healing. I understood the necessity of maintaining the fact of the one divine Mind.