It has been said, that one may get an accurate idea of an individual's character by the books he reads. For the perfect understanding of truth, I would rather have one thought, clear and transparent as crystal, than volumes wherein the truth appears occasionally as a borrowed light, to be obscured or denied for the greater part of the way. Thoughts forming through great minds, reflecting the One Mind, come to us perfected by the process, and carry conviction of truth; but the pilfered reflections of the "Mind Cure" literature, filtered through the muddy streams of vanity and conceit, that are now flooding our land, are an injury to those who wish to comprehend Christian Science and demonstrate its harmony.
To wade through this so-called literature after the little truth we may get, is to our disadvantage; for the essence all vanishes in the process of decanting. It is a dangerous pastime, also; for there is generally borrowed truth enough to make the error more subtle and fatal. Let the honest practitioner venture outside the limits of strictly orthodox Science in his reading, and he will find that he has opened a door for error to enter, and obscured his vision.
These compilers of another's thoughts, take the white robe, and fit it into a garment that, through that claim to power, animal magnetism, will adjust itself to fit those who declare the standard of Christian Science too high for their acceptance. But for these, many would approach the standard who now fall short. In proportion as we seek Truth shall we reflect Truth; it is only the obscured glimpses that mislead mankind. This debasing Truth to the level of sense, instead of elevating one's self to its comprehension by ethical and spiritual devotion, may do very well for the lazy hanger-on in mental science, but not for the genuine Christian Scientist, who must strictly adhere to Divine laws and live up to them.
