Article July 4, 1925 Issue

The Right Standpoint

PAULINE JEFFERY

It had always meant a great deal to one student of Christian Science, when going into a new locality, that her sense of direction be correct. If, upon arriving at her destination, east did not seem to be east to her, as it frequently did not, she was disturbed; and that simple problem would be taken up again and again in a mental effort to swing the universe around so that the east would be where, according to her sense, it ought to be. The thought of being "turned around" brought a sense of limitation, a hampered freedom of action, a sense of being trammeled in some way. Even though her knowledge was that east was where the sun arose, it seemed impossible to make her acknowledge it. Finally it dawned upon her that the discomfort attendant upon this experience, repeated many times in many years, was due to the effort to make the truth conform to the evidence of the material senses, and that the way to overcome the discomfort was to cease resisting, to forsake or abandon the belief about where the east should be, to rest in the knowledge that it was where the sun rose, and to adjust herself accordingly. When this decision was reached there was peace.

As the student thought over the experience above mentioned, a lesson was unfolded to her. Mrs. Eddy tells us in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 120), under the marginal heading, "Health and the senses," "Health is not a condition of matter, but of Mind; nor can the material senses bear reliable testimony on the subject of health." It was seen that the truth about man, as taught in Christian Science, reverses the testimony of the material senses,—changes our standpoints. Christian Science gives us the scientific facts about man upon which to base our deductions and our practice. When the attempt is made mentally to conform these facts to the evidence of the senses, we find discord and inharmony; but if we simply accept the truth that man is the image and likeness of God,—that he is spiritual, not material,—and advance from that standpoint, much suffering, mental and physical, is avoided.

The old tenacious beliefs—and how tenacious mortal beliefs claim to be—must be abandoned entirely. The preconceived notions about man, based upon education, environment, and association, however tenacious, must be renounced, and the student must keep thought steadfastly on what he knows is the truth about God and man.

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