Editorial January 4, 1936 Issue

"Improve Your Time"

George Shaw Cook

The error of wasting valuable time is exposed by Mrs. Eddy in her article, "Improve Your Time," on page 230 of "Miscellaneous Writings," in which she says, among other things, "Three ways of wasting time, one of which is contemptible, are gossiping mischief, making lingering calls, and mere motion when at work, thinking of nothing or planning for some amusement,—travel of limb more than mind."

One way in which Christian Scientists are sometimes led to waste valuable time is in yielding to the temptation to gossip. Occasionally those who are otherwise creditable workers make this mistake. They seem not to have seen the error of this sort of thing, for had they seen it as error, they would have avoided it. Thus, those who would never think of passing or even attempting to pass counterfeit money are apparently quite willing to pass along, and thereby keep in circulation, counterfeit concepts of others. We should be too alert and too wise to indulge in so foolish and hurtful a pastime. If any such "spurious coin" comes to us, we should put it out of circulation immediately. There is no other right or scientific thing to do.

Sometimes a student of Christian Science makes the mistake of believing it excusable to voice error about himself just because he is talking to one who is also a Christian Scientist. It is possible that the one to whom the error is voiced would be alert enough and wise enough to deny the error mentally or audibly, and so; put an end to it. It is also quite possible that he might temporarily accept it as real; and in that event, there would be two persons believing a lie instead of one, thus making a bad matter worse.

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