MRS. EDDY says, "Home is the dearest spot on earth, and it should be the center, though not the boundary of the affections" (Science and Health, p. 58). It is, however, often admitted, and always with deep regret, that the modern home falls far below the ideal in much that constitutes home in its best sense; this, too, in spite of the comfort and the luxury which are now so much in evidence. It is observed that simple obedience is greatly lacking, also thoughtfulness for others as well as respect to parents, and it is generally conceded that these are missing because so much time and thought are given to the pursuit of material things. From their earliest hours children are, unconsciously it may be, led to desire the material, to look to it for their health and happiness, until its pursuit becomes an all-absorbing passion which inevitably results in disappointment and discord.
The strange inconsistency of the so-called human mind is nowhere more apparent than in the desire for the material, since the failure of materiality to give either health or happiness is universally conceded; to say nothing of the deeper needs of man's being. Of old the wise man, who possessed all that heart could desire of material things, said of this possession that it was only "vanity and vexation of spirit;" and he also said, "If a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned." The pity is that so many continue to seek the material while admitting its failure to give anything which really counts in the end. On every hand the folly, the sin of this pursuit is being acknowledged, and yet Christian Scientists are condemned for taking the only position consistent therewith, viz.; that which declares for the allness of Mind, Spirit, and spiritual realities.
Let us try to assume the existence of a home from which love, truth, justice, purity, and health are absent, but in which there are all the material things that the human sense can desire. It would be unthinkable, for no one could conceive of home without the presence and activity of those mental or spiritual qualities which bespeak the ever-presence of the divine Mind. Then let us think of a home where Love reigns supreme, where Truth, intelligence, and right govern each member, and none would question that this is home, whatever the outward manifestations.
