WHEN we contemplate the conditions under which mankind have been living for centuries past, along social, moral, and physical lines, and the unsatisfying results which have so often attended the highest efforts put forth in these directions, the wonder is that in general they have been so stupidly willing to permit obviously wrong methods of thinking and living to govern them. In business matters the necessity for progressiveness has been recognized far more than in dealing with those vital questions which concern our social and moral welfare. If a peanut-vender, offering his wares on a certain street-corner day after day, finds that his sales do not cover his expenses, he very logically makes a change in location, because of the unsatisfactory results. The merchant who finds at the end of the year that his profit is not commensurate with the effort put forth, immediately begins a searching investigation to learn why, and proceeds to inaugurate such changes as will at least promise better results. He does not placidly fold his hands and accept unsatisfying conditions as inevitable, but arouses himself to apply the right remedy.
Although in the ever-present problem of human life—this vexed question of social reform and betterment—there has been a ceaseless endeavor to find satisfying results, the experience of ages has only added to the accumulated evidence of failure to reach any firm foundation or lasting condition of contentment. The highest efforts in this field of activity are often barren and fruitless. In the great arena of religious thought the beauty of the theories advanced, as earnestly expounded by able advocates, has appealed to mankind, and has in a measure served to buoy men up with hope; it has instilled the impulse to work on and on, enduring meanwhile with patience the ills of the flesh and the failure of cherished hopes; yet in this field of endeavor also there is an acknowledged absence of practical results. The whole scheme of human government and effort seems to be attended by the most stupendous difficulties and disheartening failures in every avenue and channel of human thought and endeavor, and humanity as a whole has hitherto practically accepted the situation unquestioningly and plodded along in the same old way, with an occasional variation or perchance some hope-inspiring innovation in its methods, fondly yet vainly believing that the renewed effort would in some way effect a change which would bring better results here and now.
It seems almost incredible that the theories which govern human activity should have gone so long unchallenged, when decade after decade, century after century, has written the same tale of failure, disappointment, sin, sickness, death; yet the remedy for the countless ills of humanity seems so simple, now that it has been given to the world and proven true in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy,—a book which the ages to come will gladly accord the very highest place in literature, —that we wonder it had not been found before. The truth which will cure mankind of all forms of sickness, free them from all forms of sin; destroy forever all belief of failure in business and social life; that will give to mankind healthful bodies, and minds in which lust, greed, discontent, dishonesty, have been supplanted by chastity, benevolence, harmony, honesty, bringing to our everyday life the practical and conscious realization that the kingdom of heaven is at hand, here and now, as proven by results, is right thinking,—the right thinking taught by Jesus nineteen hundred years ago, and today made practical and applicable to our every-day needs through the orderly arrangement and scientific explanation given in Science and Health.
