It is understood that all reputable mercantile establishments accept a common, recognized standard of accuracy upon which to base their transactions, and this necessitates the formation of correct thought habits on the part of those connected therewith, for to insure accurate work it is evident that one must become accustomed to think accurately. This rule applies equally to all phases of human conduct. That which decides one's thinking must be absolutely true if one would live a true life, whether the immediate need be moral or mathematical. A banker does not consider his assistants' work correct enough if it is not wholly correct, neither does he believe they are honest enough if they are less than upright. One would not say of a statement that it is true enough to be true if he does not believe it to be the exact truth, and we should require the same exactness, the same conformity to the correct standard, in all that pertains to human well-being.
The chief difficulty with mankind has not been in accepting what is known to be false, but in ignorantly or carelessly believing or formulating theories without first testing them by the divine ideal. We would not think that sinning and suffering mortals are good enough to be the work of God, or that evil is true enough to be true of man, God's image and likeness, if we judged according to God's standard. Divine intelligence, being infinite, must always know all that is true, and could never have known anything else; therefore any statement of truth to be absolute must be what God knows. Admitting the infinity of God, human thought must of necessity seek the standard of right thinking in divine Mind, and must come to know as true and real only what God, or good, manifests, if it would lift the burden which now rests so heavily upon the human race.
It is apparent that wrong thinking underlies and produces all human discord, all economic failure, all disagreement among nations, all disease and poverty, all that makes for unhappiness, all that supposes life to be separate from God. All that should not be, all that need not be if men loved each other, all that would not be if good ruled the hearts of men, springs from wrong thoughts and ideals; and how can this state of things be remedied save as we find the true standard of thought, the divine Science of being, and therewith correct these wrong thoughts and ideals? It is certain that things would go right instead of wrong if all men knew the truth and were true to what they knew; therefore the purpose of Christian Science to lead mankind into a knowledge of the truth, and thus to promote right thinking, should enlist their sympathy and support, for the fulfilment of this purpose means the overthrow of humanity's only enemy and oppressor, namely, their ignorance of God. Through this teaching men are beginning to realize the direct relation between thought and experience as that between cause and effect, and consequently they see the need of a better way of thinking in order to bring about improved conditions.
