Article April 22, 1911 Issue

THE MENTAL FOCUS

HILDA W. HATCHARD.

On page 8 of "Unity of Good," Mrs. Eddy says, "Everything is as real as you make it, and no more so." It behooves us, therefore, to study well our mental attitude toward all that comes within range of our consciousness, and "learn where our affections are placed and whom we acknowledge and obey as God" (Science and Health, p. 239).

The human mind has often been referred to as a lens through which we view the universe, and we know that in a camera the lens can be focused so that the particular object or scene we wish to have portrayed may stand out more clearly than any other part of the picture, the surroundings merely forming a background or frame for the main object. In sketching, too, a subject has first to be chosen, the principal idea the artist wishes to express, which usually occupies the center of the picture, and all the other forms depicted are more or less indistinct, and grouped in such a manner that the observer's attention is at once attracted to the main subject; and so the artist's thought is perceived and understood. So is it in life! Each of us is drawing a mental picture of the universe on the canvas of his individual consciousness, and the principal subject each one delineates is that phase of thought which most absorbs his attention.

Apart from Christian Science, each mortal has a different ideal or object that he is reproducing. One makes wealth his chief aim, another fame, another human affection, and so on. There are many different ideals and each is making the most of that particular expression of thought which seems to him to comprise the most good; and the artist is known by his picture. In Christian Science, however, there comes a change. We are taught to have but one object, and all who enlist in its ranks have the same object to portray, viz., good,—good in its every form, good which is the nature and essence of God,—and the highest and most important form of all good which is to be the center of each picture is Love. We must focus all our attention, all our thought-forces on divine Love; then we shall demonstrate before the world our highest ideal, the nature of Christ, Truth, a glorious picture.

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