IF one were to ask the average individual what, to his sense, would embrace all of the elements of true success, the essence of his reply would probably be that to be healthy, to have a successful business, a happy home, harmonious relations with his fellows, freedom from fear, want, and discord, would constitute a sense of complete well-being. A consciousness of well-being—a mental state—is primarily what all are seeking, so that, when seen aright, matter becomes secondary from the start. How to attain this mental state and enjoy its fruitage is the problem which all desire to solve.
When the mental factors in the above category are analyzed, many forms of evil suggestion seem to present themselves from the standpoint of sense-testimony, arguing that success, if not actual well-being, depends largely on the possession of money, social prestige, personality, and so on, and that a pronounced lack of these must affect the result adversely. What protection have we, then, against chance and change, loss, disease, death? Is there an immutable intelligence which may be understood and expressed that is ever available to meet human needs and that is of unfailing power? Christian Science teaches that there is. It begins its reasoning from the standpoint of divine Mind, God, the opposite of matter, and shows that Mind's operation is seen in God's expression of Himself—spiritual man and the spiritual universe; also that the only dependable, actual mental influence is exerted by Mind, God—is good in action.
Reasoning from this basis, in working to attain true success and well-being, one tests his thoughts to see whether they are of divine or of human origin, for it is plain that divine intelligence must be expressed or reflected spiritually in godliness, and that it can never be in or of matter. In this light the belief in matter as being substantial is found to be delusion; and it is also shown how it is that its claim to attract, if accepted, perverts and debases the individual.
