One of the teachings of Christian Science is, that a good part of the unpleasant things that seemingly come into our life's experience—the things that grate and jar our sensibilities, that offend our pride and dignity, that stir within us a sense of injustice done and injury sustained, that perhaps provoke our hot criticism and condemnation—are, after all, often simply the result of our own erroneous mental perception, a faulty reflection on an imperfect mental surface. I know from bitter personal experience that this is one of the hardest things to learn, and one that we are most reluctant to admit as true. The statement that a condition which had seemingly offended us is in our own consciousness, that is, conjured into being by a mental process entirely of our own volition and subject to our control, is apt to arouse within us most earnest and often indignant protest, and yet we find, if we will give ourselves an honest, searching introspection on the lines laid down in our text-book, that it is only too true.
If the surface of a mirror is perfect, smooth and level, highly polished and true, it will reflect a true image; if, however, the surface is uneven, full of spots and flaws, it will reflect an imperfect image, one distorted and deformed. The convex mirror, as we know, will show an abnormally elongated object, the concave mirror will show images broadened out ridiculously, and thus, any departure from the true and the straight will cause a corresponding deflection in the image produced.
And so from this we learn, that if our mental mirror is convex or concave, blemished with imperfections, spotted with selfishness, pride, malice, impurity, uncharitableness, uneven, out of adjustment with God, Good, the result must be an imperfect, distorted mental picture; while if we keep our mental surface polished with Christly charity, pure, and unspotted with "anything that defileth, ... or maketh a lie," when we have that mind in us which was also in Christ Jesus, our consciousness will then only reflect that which is perfect, symmetrical, pure, and holy.
