Article June 1, 1946 Issue

Man's True Environment

WILLIS R. SMITH

Desirable activity, satisfying companionship, a congenial home, and a sense of abundance are sought by many. But often this seeking brings forth aspects of environment which bear down upon the thought, causing anxiety and trepidation, until one believes himself to be the victim of circumstances.

Probably every individual has, at one time or another, found himself in conflict with his environment. So common is this experience that it led Charles Darwin, the naturalist, to define as a natural law this struggle of man with his environment which in its results the English philosopher, Herbert Spencer, called "the survival of the fittest." It often seems, from the merely human point of vies, that the struggle is very onesided and in favor of the environment. If environment is looked upon as a limiting and controlling force, the individual must come to terms with and adapt himself to his environment.

Jesus, however, indicated the nature of man's true environment when he said (Luke 17:21), "Behold, the kingdom of God is within you." Paul pointed it out when he stated (Acts 17:28), "In him we live, and move, and have our being." Mary Baker Eddy, in her textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," reveals the method of finding this real, ever-present environment when she writes (p. 516), "The substance, Life, intelligence, Truth, and Love, which constitute Deity, are reflected by His creation; and when we subordinate the false testimony of the corporeal senses to the facts of Science, we shall see this true likeness and reflection everywhere."