Benjamin Franklin often recalled a folly of his boyhood that had brought him temporary chagrin but had also added to his permanent wisdom. Having been given some coins, young Ben hurried to the nearest toy store, anxious to spend them. But on the way he encountered a friend with a whistle, which he thought so desirable that he unhesitatingly traded every penny in his pocket for it.

However, Ben's pleasure was short-lived, for he soon learned he had paid four times too much for his purchase and could have received far more for his money. The lesson that he gave "too much for the whistle" ^{Letter to Mme Brillon, 1779;} remained with Ben Franklin all his days, and he thought of it whenever he saw a man sacrificing too much to gain popularity, wealth, possessions, and material pleasures. It became a golden scale by which he weighed his actions and maintained a right balance in his sense of values.

Through the ages many of the world's famous men have had a high moral sense of values. Moses cemented a nation on the moral foundation of the Ten Commandments. He challenged rampant sin and materialism with divinely inspired rules of worthy human conduct and worship. Centuries later Christ Jesus elevated humanity's sense of values to a more spiritual basis. He asked, "What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" ^{Mark 8:36;} —his spiritual sense.

Mortal mind, if one will listen to it, is a canny bargainer, and the price it seeks is the individual's conscious capacity to reflect infinite Mind. Unless the Christian Scientist is wary, he may easily find himself paying "too much for the whistle," forfeiting his spiritual inspiration for the attractions and distractions that surround him. Along this line a verse from the Christian Science Hymnal might be appropriate:

Sometimes the cost may be particularly high when we are working out a problem we have learned to live with, when procrastination in matter binds us to a sense of material existence and its temptations. But the Master tolerated no accommodation to error. When he drove the money changers out of the temple with the stinging command, "Make not my Father's house an house of merchandise," ^{John 2:16;} his words held more than a momentary and literal injunction. His warning reaches down the centuries to all mankind who would defile their Father's house—the true spiritual consciousness—with the mental merchandise of corporeality, personality, sin, disease, and death. Jesus allowed neither time nor place for material-mindedness.

Every thought we think is a mental transaction. We are either clothing our ideas with spiritualization of consciousness or we are bartering with the personal senses that disappoint and defraud. Mrs. Eddy, who expended all for the Cause she so unselfishly established, counsels: "Seek Truth, and pursue it. It should cost you something: you are willing to pay for error and receive nothing in return; but if you pay the price of Truth, you shall receive all." ^{Miscellaneous Writings, p. 342;}

The prophet Isaiah had a clear sense of what mortal man must forfeit and what God gives in return. "For brass I will bring gold, and for iron I will bring silver." ^{Isa. 60:17;} He also said that God had sent him to give "beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness." ^61:3; Through spiritualization of thought everyone, regardless of past mistakes, is eligible to receive a wealth of goodness, beautiful and joyous fulfillment. But we must yield up willingly and completely the brass, the iron, the ashes, or, in other words, the belief of life in matter, human will, self-pity, and sinfulness.

In this work of regeneration, of correcting and spiritualizing our sense of values, we need not feel we have to pull ourselves up by our own mental bootstraps. The seeming quicksand of sin is an illusion, powerless against the adhering and cohering forces of divine Mind. Mrs. Eddy instructs us: "To hold yourself superior to sin, because God made you superior to it and governs man, is true wisdom. To fear sin is to misunderstand the power of Love and the divine Science of being in man's relation to God,—to doubt His government and distruct His omnipotent care. To hold yourself superior to sickness and death is equally wise, and is in accordance with divine Science." ^{Science and Health, p. 231.}

The spiritualization of our sense of values through Christian Science affects our body as well as our mind. The spiritually-minded individual enjoys a more consistent sense of health and well-being. Should sickness tempt him, he does not consider drugs, diagnosis, or medical treatment because to him that would be paying "too much for the whistle." One who does this is shortchanging himself of the greater, permanent benefits of increased spiritual understanding, which bring not only physical healing but a conscious oneness, or unity, with the source of divine power that continues to meet every human need. Indeed he would be shortchanging himself in his progress toward salvation.

A spiritual sense of values harmonizes and liberates our relationships with others. It elevates us above petty annoyances, criticism, and selfishness. Mere pleasure seeking and self-indulgence are lessened, and we develop a more discriminating use of our leisure time. It purifies our sense of doing good.

Years ago, upon entering a university, I was torn between attending the Christian Science organization meetings there and participating in another group's activities held on the same evenings. I rationalized that although the latter were of a more social nature, my part in them would still be one of service. Hoping my teacher in the Christian Science Sunday School would somehow be an accomplice to my faulty reasoning, I sought her opinion. Her answer has been a guide through the years. "Which is better, to help twenty people materially or one person spiritually?"

Benjamin Franklin watched that he did not pay "too much for the whistle." We can weigh our thoughts and actions with Christ Jesus' penetrating question, "What shall it profit . . .?" and above all guard and cherish that pearl of great price, our developing spiritual understanding.