A Measuring Rod

FAITH HOLMES HYERS

UPON entering college, the writer remembers being at first delighted by the choice and range of subjects offered for study, and then bewildered by the variety and diversity of opinion or theory that assailed her eager curiosity. Surely, she thought, students must end in wondering what to believe, unless they have some sort of tested measuring rod by which to gauge the truth or fallacy, the strength or weakness, of this or that conflicting theory advanced by instructors and textbooks. With a great sense of assurance and comfort, she then turned to the standard of life and of man which she had found in Christian Science. To-day, when invention and increasing knowledge have widened the horizons of learning, and many new philosophies of thought have been formulated, it is indeed vital that the student entering high school or college, or the young person who reads widely, should have a mental standard in order that he may evaluate the ideas which clamor for admittance to his thought.

Fortunate is the young man or woman who carries within his or her own consciousness for instant use the measuring rod of God, man, and reality found in the writings of Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science. The boy or girl who has attended a Christian Science Sunday School, or who has demonstrated the truths of Christian Science in daily problems at home, has a basis for comparison regarding every theory about life or man offered in the guise of truth. The student has learned and tested certain axioms in Christian Science, namely, that God is Spirit, that man is spiritual, and that matter is unreal.

He is not confused by the pride of intellectualism or the fierce competition for high marks, for he has learned that there is but one source of intelligence, infinite Mind, and that man reflects this one Mind. He is not dismayed by the "hard-boiled" and apparently disillusioned attitude toward life, law, and order assumed by many students. Without the clarifying lens of Christian Science, he, too, might find confusion of values and a false sense of freedom. With this lens he is beginning to adapt everything he learns to a fuller knowledge of God and man. As Paul has fittingly expressed it, "Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ [Truth]."

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