Article July 19, 1947 Issue

WATCH YOUR THINKING!

ARTHUR FREEMAN

When Mary Baker Eddy wrote in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 250), "Mortal thoughts chase one another like snowflakes, and drift to the ground," she was not being facetious. Our Leader possessed in good measure the qualities of "wit, humor, and enduring vivacity," which a noted divine named as inherent attributes of "God's people, but she never used a phrase lightly or without some definitely helpful purpose. In comparing mortal thoughts with snowflakes, she evidently wished to illustrate how uncontrolled, confused, disorganized, and temporal are the thoughts which usually constitute the daily thinking of mortals. A constant flow of thoughts aroused by memories of the past or induced by contemplation of the morrow—thoughts suggested by radio commentators, by newspaper reports, by conversations, or by scores of other sources —passes through every human consciousness.

It would be interesting and perhaps highly useful, if it were possible, to take an inventory of one's thoughts for a single day. Such an inventory would doubtless reveal, on the part of most people, a surprising percentage of thinking devoted to mundane and material considerations and a very small percentage devoted to spiritual realities. Yet we are admonished by the Scriptures and by our Leader's writings to take no thought for material things. The promise is that the human supply essential to our progress and happiness will be generously provided when we seek first to consecrate our thinking to those spiritual qualities which evidence reality, and which, as our Master taught, coincide with the kingdom of God and His righteousness.

It is generally admitted, even as it has been demonstrated in Christian Science, that an individual's life experience is the result of his thoughts. The Bible puts this truth in the familiar words (Prov. 23:7), "As he thinketh in his heart, so is he." It is patent from this that nothing exists for us outside of consciousness. We embrace our sense of the universe in our thought, whether we accept as reality the material sense of being or perceive Truth's universe through spiritual sense.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

SPIRITUAL IDEAS GIVE DAILY SUPPLIES