WHEN mankind is first brought face to face with a new idea of Truth, the common mental reaction is one of either attraction or repulsion, of hope or fear as to the probable effect on one's own habits of thought by the issue involved. The neutral or indifferent zone of human consciousness lies between these extremes, one or the other of which appears in the initial steps of all mental activity as the sure sign of aroused self-interest. The temptation of error at this juncture is to fear lest the effect of the new idea be adverse and inconvenient.
The normal response of a healthy mentality is to hope that the effect of the new idea may be beneficent, but human character can be put to no more certain test than that of its involuntary responses to new views of Truth, for, as Mrs. Eddy writes (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 19), "Between the centripetal and centrifugal mental forces of material and spiritual gravitations, we go into or we go out of materialism or sin, and choose our course and its results."
The soundness of this test lies in the fact that these initial reactions tend to perpetuate themselves and become habitual, so that in time either hope or fear characterizes all one's mental procedure. The student of Christian Science soon learns the value of this disclosure, in so far as it applies to the regulation of his physical condition, by his practical discovery that the best place to handle trouble of any sort is at its inception, before it takes root in habit.
