Students of Christian Science find much reason for gratitude in the fact that its teachings fit them to understand the hitherto unexplained problems of human experience through its presentation of high spiritual ideals. On page 126 of "Miscellaneous Writings" Mrs. Eddy says that "trials lift us to that dignity of Soul which sustains us, and finally conquers them; and that the ordeal refines while it chastens."
Human lives seem to be like books of experiences, and the separate chapters to be made up largely of ordeals. Looking at conditions with eyes which decline to be deceived, the bald fact stands forth that the great masses of mankind appear to pass through hard ordeals for the most part. Circumstances differ, of course, in the widest and most divergent ways, and many of us are prone to suppose that our particular lives are along rockier and thornier roads than the lives of most others. We have a closer view of our own troubles. The troubles of others are less distinctly seen, and often are not seen at all. Our ears are rarely deaf to the discords in our own lives, however inattentive otherwise.
If one climbs his troubles, they look to him to be a weary succession of mountains and precipices; while the troubles of another may appear to him to be easier to overcome. For many the psalmist has crystallized their estimate of mortal existence when he says, "Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity."
