Article July 3, 1954 Issue

WHAT DO I THINK OF MYSELF?

HERBERT E. RIEKE

One day while riding on a streetcar a neighbor asked a Christian Scientist a simple but rather startling question: "What do you think of yourself?" For a moment the Scientist was not sure what he ought to answer. Should he give the absolute truth or compromise in his reply. Finally he answered: "Well, I'll tell you. I think I am the perfect child of God, and so are you by the same token." The two neighbors then discussed Christian Science during their ride downtown. This gentleman had heard that Christian Scientists believe in the perfection of man. He wondered what a Christian Scientist would answer if put to the test. Had the Scientist just declared for his own perfection, he might have been accused of egotism. But when he showed that he sought to see the perfection of everyone, there was no objection.

The student has thought about this experience many times, and has seen that everyone is often in the same situation, dealing with the question of what he thinks of himself. Many times each day, consciously or unconsciously, directly or indirectly, this question is being asked: "What do you think of yourself?" Many of the replies given are not very constructive.

Christ Jesus once asked the disciples (Matt. 16:13), "Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?" They replied, "Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets." Jesus then asked them what they thought, and Peter answered, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus commended that answer.

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