To the thought of the individual just entering into the larger concept of life and being, as revealed in Christian Science, the statement that as a man "thinketh in his heart, so is he," gives food for meditation. Can it be, he reasons, that one's life, one's happiness or sadness, success or failure, one's friendships or loneliness, can depend on the way one "thinketh in his heart"? Hitherto, probably, he has cherished a very different view of the matter. Life and happiness have seemed to be made or marred by circumstances certainly not in his power to control. Maybe his home has seemed to be made wellnigh unbearable through somebody else's bad temper; failure has dogged his footsteps, or sickness blighted his hopes and handicapped him in his career. Many a time he has told himself that it was through no fault of his own that things had gone wrong; it was just his misfortune! Now, however, Christian Science has given him an entirely different standpoint, and he clearly perceives that it is his concept of things which needs attention and which must be transformed; for "as he thinketh in his heart," so life appears to take on either a rosy or a somber hue. His sense of circumstances,—physical, mental, or financial problems, difficult people, adverse conditions,—all may be changed proportionately as a diviner perception pierces the mist of falsity, and the actual facts of God's creation are discerned.
At first, perhaps, one is inclined to resent this reversal of things; for it is not easy to turn the searchlight of Truth on one's self, when one has been busily employed turning it on other people and things. The self-styled styled martyr to circumstance, the so-called sufferer from other people's mistakes, finds he can no longer rest comfortably on the bench of self-pity. He must look the situation squarely in the face and find his bearings. Unsatisfactory, disappointing definitions of life, of his brother-man, and of fate must be altered; for he discovers it is through learning how to be master of his thinking that he can bring into his experience those longed-for, but hitherto elusive treasures, success, health, and harmony. As the great fundamental process of entertaining higher thoughts, purer ideals, and better concepts is adhered to, the pages of Life's book, written by the divine hand, begin to unfold, and all that Love's storehouse contains shifts into light. So, in the words of our Leader, Mrs. Eddy, in her book "No and Yes" (p. 25), "Man outlives finite mortal definitions of himself," as God's holy purpose for His child is understood.
How often has the human heart yearned for wider scope, greater powers, more satisfying joys, vaster activities, more useful work and uplifting environment! It has longed, alas, too often in vain, to break down its sense of limitation, to climb higher, to reach something outside itself, beyond ordinary restricted thinking and the humdrum of the daily round. But thought expands and broadens only as poor, selfish, sick, and sinful concepts drop away and the great ever present truth is discerned. What joy comes to the student of Christian Science as he is lifted up into purer mental atmospheres, and an increasing understanding of the magnitude of the Saviour's unspeakable gift to the world pervades his consciousness!
