Article September 24, 1932 Issue

Right Judgment

FLORENCE L. ANSTEY

WHAT more beautiful sight greeted the eye in the days fast receding than a ship with sails full set standing out to sea! The graceful lines and poise of the ship seemed to blend with the beauty of the scene to form a harmonious whole. This picture of a ship riding the billows on an even keel may be taken to illustrate well-balanced judgment, or sanity of outlook. A very desirable quality this, and one for which we should strive. It is especially valuable to us in our work as members of the Church of Christ, Scientist.

There are those to whom we turn instinctively in crises because of their calmness, judgement, and power of direction. While some persons appear to possess this quality of right judgment to a certain extent, there is one way only in which to establish it divinely in our consciousness, and to insure the continuing help of Christian Science in the overcoming of all problems, physical and mental. This way is the way of understanding prayer, which enables us to check and correct our thinking whenever it tends to become biased through acceptance of error seeming to be our own thought or suggested from without. This mental work, or prayer, is the constant refuge of the Christian Scientist. Small beginnings may mark the effort, but it persisted in humbly, the effort becomes more inspirational and more fruitful; and we thus gain poise and balance for our voyage through the often tumultuous waters of material sense.

It may seem no easy matter mentally to keep an even keel in the face of difficulties and differences; for there seems to be a common tendency to rush to extremes in human opinions, affections, and actions. Our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, on pages 205 and 206 of "Miscellaneous Writings" says that those who "learn Christian Science, and live what they learn, take rapid transit to heaven, . . . from flux to permanence, from foul to pure, from torpid to serene, from extremes to intermediate." She had ample opportunity to observe these extremes in operation in human thought, and to provide their antidote in her many helpful writings. In the foregoing passage is also indicated the quiet work that Christian Science performs in the transformation of human character.

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