Mankind is ever reaching out for that which satisfies. It is ever looking for something which will bring it happiness and contentment. It has known little of the true basis of satisfaction, and consequently so-called mortal existence might almost be defined in two words: I want. So comprehensive seems this sense of things that men spend a large share of their time in thinking about what they want, how to get what they want, and then,—in wanting something else. To be sure, this wanting may be separated into what they call right wants and wrong wants, but it still has to do with human desire, and results in at most but temporary gratification.
Working thus from the standpoint of materiality,—which is acknowledged to be transitory in its nature, —mankind is continually reaching after satisfaction in the unsatisfying, happiness in the elusive, and contentment where there is no stability. Because of this, its concept of life and its activities is as unstable as the shifting sands of a sea where the engulfing waves of mortal belief are constantly washing away the impressions of each recurring day, often leaving little but wreckage to tell of past hopes.
To turn from such uncertainty to the permanency which Christian Science reveals demands a complete reversal of thought and purpose. In this perfect Science of Life, God has given to all men the method whereby perfect satisfaction may always be realized. In place of the changing, restless, temporal basis of matter from which to deduce wants, Christian Science reveals unalterable divine Principle as the source where-from men may win all that is truly satisfying. The psalmist glimpsed this when he wrote, "I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness;" and again, "Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing." Now man, as the child of God, certainly has the right to be satisfied. One could not imagine for an instant that the image and likeness of God, infinite good, could ever be deprived of true satisfaction. From this it follows that men have only to turn from matter to God, divine Mind, and seek therein all good, to begin to taste of the truly satisfying and eternal.
