Editorial January 17, 1914 Issue

"Think on these things"

John B. Willis

The vigor and commercial progressiveness of the western world, the abandon with which great business enterprises are entered into, and the ever-increasing habits of luxurious living with their multiplying demands for sense excitation,—all these certainly tend to relegate the cultivation of the meditative mood to the background. While the energy, the goaheadativeness of our times is accomplishing much that is good and praiseworthy, nevertheless, if permitted to rule, it would banish the calm and quiet of that nobler living whose products have a value above rubies, though unnamed in trade catalogues and unlisted at the bourse. In its golden age Athens was no less famed for its "retreats of the thoughtful" than for its temple-crowned Acropolis, and when these groves were abandoned, the fluted columns of her greatest achievements began to crumble. The Master's habit of the out upon the hills alone, evidenced his recognition of the fact that every true life must pay unfailing tribute to mediation, and only they can follow him to the heights who have learned to love the moments when they are alone with God.

The steadiness and purity of the spring's outflow always tell us of a hidden sea, and no less surely does every large giving life tell of an unbroken communion with the deeps of Truth, its comradeship with thoughts too great for utterance. Through the vision of the son of Amos it was written, "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee;" and Christ Jesus but rephrased this thought when he said, "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you." The heart of faith is communion, and the strength of a man is his daily consciousness of and reliance upon the divine presence.

It has been well said, that "without great spaces of silence there can be no deep thought," and the end and achievement of the Christ-teaching as interpreted in Christian Science is to silence material sense, to institute and promote the contemplative spirit, to realize, as Mrs. Eddy has written, that "God unites understanding to eternal harmony:" that "the calm and exalted thought or spiritual apprehension is at peace" (Science and Health, p. 506). The student of this Science immediately enters upon a more thoughtful and mentally self-governed life by virtue of his recognition that the world-problem is his problem, and that it can be solved only as he comes to understand for himself the Principle and rule of Science, and applies his knowledge with patient persistence to the elimination of every error of belief. Moreover, as the light of Truth dawns upon consciousness and the ills attendant upon one's own passing false sense fade away, he begins to speak with assurance and authority, and the way is speedily opened for that ministry to others which is the duty and joy of every Christlike man. He is thus stimulated to increased thoughtfulness, that standing for Truth's presence and power which is effective prayer.

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