The writer stood one day at a street corner in a strange city, waiting for a certain street car. A number of cars passed but the particular car desired did not come. After a while a passer-by was asked for information; he replied that this particular car passed at the next corner; I went on, caught it there, and reached my destination. The incident left a profound impression upon left. In the face of countless almost instantaneous demonstrations over beliefs of every other nature, there had been complete failure to arrive at a spiritual understanding of place arid supply after more than a year of effort. The incident of waiting for the street car at the wrong corner set me to work upon this problem of place and supply from a new angle. Was it possible that I had been standing at the wrong corner, some corner of material error, while but a short distance away opportunity was passing daily, hourly, momentarily?
I went to a practitioner and explained matters. The practitioner told me that I was suffering from the errors of pride and fear. This surprised me greatly, for a delusion had been clung to that several years of study of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy had enabled me to cast out every vestige of pride and fear. Upon examining the actual state of my thought, however, it was seen that the practitioner was right, that figuratively speaking I had indeed been standing on the wrong corner, and that there was an instant need to move onward. For many years I had been in business and had prospered; then came the war, and the work of years was swept away apparently in a night. Afterwards came the problem of place and supply and the endeavor to work it out from a spiritual standpoint. An unconscious error had crept into the effort to solve the problem. There had been outlining. A feeling had arisen that years of experience and standing entitled one to a position well up in the scale of human endeavor. There was a desire to be an executive rather than an assistant, to be in business on my own account rather than the employee of another. I had unwittingly entertained the fear that to go into any occupation below a certain level of authority was like going down, and yet another fear, the silliest of all bugbears in a business man's thought, the fear that if I did seek employment I might never again go up in the scale of endeavor.
In the light of Truth these twin evils vanished completely, and I moved onward to the right corner. I sought work through employment agencies and at anything I could do. All that was offered to me was the unloading of freight cars in a railroad yard, at three dollars and a half per day. I decided to take it. I had no clothes with which to handle such work, but purposed to purchase a pair of overalls. A legal holiday intervened at this point, and in the meantime I returned to the practitioner and informed him of the understanding which had come to me and the step I was about to take. Before I left his office a telephone message was received informing me that clerical employment had been obtained for me; it turned out to be for a class of work for which I had a peculiar fitness through former experience. The right place had been found; spiritual guidance had been attained. It was taking me to my destination.
