Article June 10, 1933 Issue

Choosing One's Company

[Written Especially for Young People]

SAMUEL GREENWOOD

IN her Message to The Mother Church for 1900 (p. 8) Mrs. Eddy writes, "The good man imparts knowingly and unknowingly goodness; but the evil man also exhales consciously and unconsciously his evil nature—hence, be careful of your company." We are also familiar with the saying, "A man is known by the company he keeps."

While these statements have particular reference to personal associations, the wholly mental nature of human experience invites a consideration of the subject in its broader application, namely, that of one's thoughts. Our thoughts are ever our closest companions. In the words of our Leader, "They make us what we are" (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 203). Good men or evil men are such by reason of the thoughts they entertain and make their own; therefore, the primal application of this question relates to the quality of the thoughts one consents to keep company with, for this will be the deciding factor in the choice of friends.

A helpful story is told of one man's early self-discipline, of how he listed the mental qualities which he believed would form the best character and supply the most dependable aids to success. At the end of each day he checked the list to see where he had succeeded or failed in conforming his thoughts and acts to his ideal. In other words, he set out to make his highest thoughts of true manhood his daily companions.

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