Article March 21, 1936 Issue

"Stand porter at the door of thought"

CARL WALTER GEHRING

A Leak may be small, even insignificant in the beginning, but if it is not stopped it may become dangerous. This is the case with material leaks. Mental leaks must be guarded against with even greater alertness. Mary Baker Eddy, the wise Leader of the Christian Science movement, gave evidence of her understanding of this when she wrote (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 392): "Stand porter at the door of thought. Admitting only such conclusions as you wish realized in bodily results, you will control yourself harmoniously," a statement which indicates that one's experiences for good or ill are the result of one's thinking.

A single wrong thought seeking to enter our consciousness, therefore, should not be disregarded. If such a thought should enter and not be expelled, it may attract to itself other wrong thoughts; and an erroneous thought, being an error, cannot lead to anything but more error. Who has not heard someone complain, Everything seems to go wrong today! Why? Possibly because that one allowed an erroneous thought to find a lodgment early in the day and took no steps to dismiss it. It may have been fear, or worry, or irritation. Irritation is a common error. If indulged, it lets in allied thoughts, such as unreasonableness, anger, faultfinding, discouragement, and even despair. And then instead of having to make only a trifling correction one is confronted with the need to make a big correction.

To illustrate, one may take the experience of a student of Christian Science who arose one morning later than usual, and who at once let in a sense of annoyance and did nothing to destroy it. That is, he did not heed Mrs. Eddy's sound advice in regard to the duties of portering. His thought was unguarded and, consequently, the annoyance soon gathered to itself a sense of hurry. At breakfast he read an unfavorable business item and instead of handling this as suggestion, he entertained it, and the sense of annoyance and hurry developed into irritation. He climbed into his car, and in this frame of mind joined the city-bound stream of traffic. To him all other drivers seemed obnoxious, but one driver especially annoyed him. At the next stop light he decided to show this fellow motorist what good driving should be! As it happened, a pedestrian had started to cross the street, and in hurrying around the front of the obnoxious fellow motorist, stepped right in the path of the car of the student of Christian Science. A sudden stop just in time, due to a prompt use of good brakes, avoided an accident. It did more; it awakened the student to perceive how he had been used by suggestion, how erroneous thinking had almost led him into disaster. He threw out all the wrong thinking he had been indulging, was grateful for the lesson, and resolved to begin no more days in a similar fashion.

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