Article January 11, 1900 Issue

The True Center

BY BERT POOLE.

Christian Science reveals the fact that nearly all men are egotists; that is, the world, society, business, God (when He is thought of), and all matters and affairs, center in the little I's of the world; in the mortals who comprise its billions of population.

As this is true of individual men, so is it true of bodies of men, communities, states, and nations. From individuals up to nations it seems to mortal thought as if the only destiny to which man is fated is to be born of woman, to struggle through the growing period under the rule and heel of parents and educators, and then to be pushed out into the world to shift for himself, uncared for except by a few of his relatives and friends. Millions of such are daily carrying burdens of work, of trouble, of mortal fret and ferment, and the wonder is that the paternal institutions of the states and countries of the world are not many times their present size and filled to overflowing with the unfortunates who know not the Truth, hence bear life's troubles in sorrow and calm despair.

There are many to whom the Truth of being has never come. To a vast majority of mortals life hangs on a thread, and the constant expectation is that its slender fabric may be snapped at any time. The only thought of happiness possessed by most of earth's millions lies in the "reward" they are to have in heaven, after the resurrection, or in some way, beyond the grave. But in whatever channel the thoughts of mortals flow, the conclusions are turned inward upon themselves. I know a man in business who dreads business failure as the worst calamity that could befall him, his dread being occasioned by the thought of what his acquaintances would think of him. A long list of imaginary ills are conjured up by seemingly intelligent people who have proved those imaginings many times in their lives to be false beliefs, but who are so self-centered that new forms of conjecture, worry, and disaster appear in constant succession to torture them into the belief that "all is vanity and vexation of spirit."

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

Christian Science is Practical Christianity