Article April 3, 1943 Issue

What Am I Thinking?

HERBERT E. BONHAM

Who would be willing at a moment's notice to answer the old challenge, "A penny for your thoughts"? And yet, everything in a man's life has to do with the quality of his thinking. Thinking is the most vital activity of human existence. In fact, everything we do or say is the result of our thinking.

In the Preface to "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. vii) Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, writes, "The time for thinkers has come," There is perhaps no work of greater importance to everyone today than that of arousing mankind to the necessity of watching thought. This Science teaches that God, infinite Mind, is the source of all right thinking; that only thoughts which originate in divine Mind are correct and true. Material thoughts come from the belief that there is intelligence in matter. Spiritual thoughts come from the understanding that God, Spirit, is All, and that there is no matter. The right thinker is inseparable from God. When a man is thinking rightly, his words and acts must of necessity be in accord with his thinking. Home, business, environment, and companionship are the expressions of one's thinking. In fact, this must be said of everything that one experiences.

No evil can stand before right thinking. True power and dominion result only from right thoughts, because they are of God. The right thinker is always consciously under the protection of the Most High. This was proved by Daniel in the lions' den. His steadfast adherence to righteous thinking dispelled fear and protected him even in the presence of the lions. Daniel's thought was above the suggestions of fear, hate, revenge, and resentment, and the lions could not harm him. The Hebrew captives were safe in the fiery furnace because their thoughts were out of reach of material destruction. Elisha was undaunted, even though he was surrounded by the horses and chariots of the enemy, because his thought was lifted above the material evidence and he saw that which his servant failed to see, horses and chariots of fire surrounding them; in other words, the presence of God was seen to be manifested in protection and safety. Jesus was untouched by the temptations of the devil because his thought was filled with spiritual truth. He refuted each temptation with words of Scripture, and we are told that the devil left him and angels, "God's thoughts passing to man" (ibid., p. 581), ministered unto him.

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