Article January 17, 1914 Issue

A True Mental Attitude

FORREST P. WEAVER

"Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright," sang the psalmist; and James tells us that "whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed." It is apparent that action is contingent on thinking, or the result of it, and it necessarily follows that if the thought prompting an act is a divine idea, the act itself must be good. Christian Science maintains that this is the philosophy of true living, and proves it in the only logical way possible by demonstration.

Christian Science points out to men a simple, practical way of right thinking which all who will may follow. A sincere Christian Scientist tries to emulate the example of the Master, "who went about doing good," and only good. His work was always healing, encouraging, uplifting. His teaching seemed transcendental to materialistic thought, but it was a practical transcendentalism; and this constitutes the difference between theory and practise. In this progressive age we apply the pragmatic test to every idea and ask, Will it work? Christian Science invites such a test, and is proving under severe trials that it is demonstrable; and this is the best argument in justification of its existence. When Christian Science comes into one's life, it means a complete mental right-about, and this change of view-point is effected by gaining a true concept of God, a God who is all-embracing goodness, and of man created in His likeness.

When the student sees that the man God made is not a sick person or a sinner, but must, as "image," correspond with or reflect his Maker, and hence be spiritual and perfect, his attitude toward himself and his environment is completely changed. He begins to get a glimpse of the new heaven and the new earth, that glorious vision of St. John where the former things are indeed passed away, and all things are made new. As he grows in the understanding of the truth, the simplicity and practical utility of it all seem so natural that he wonders why he did not realize it before. Did not Jesus say, "The kingdom of God is within you"? and John, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God"?

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