IN the book of Acts we find Peter rejoicing because an "angel of the Lord" had come and delivered him "from all the expectation of the people of the Jews." The extremely hostile attitude of Herod and of those around him gave the Christians great concern, else Peter would not have entertained and voiced that deep feeling of gratitude; and his experience may awaken us to a need to be watchful and alert lest we fall under the influence of something of the same sort, from which we would wish to be delivered.
One's expectations are the things which one anticipates will find expression in his own experience or that of others. Their nature is determined by the quality of the thinking which supports them. They may be desirable or otherwise. They may be the product of one's own thinking or that of others; and among the latter may be numbered a multitude of persons of whose existence even we have no personal knowledge whatever. Their mental reactions make up what is known as the common or accepted thought upon any subject. Unless one is vigilant such common thought may, though unworthy, be accepted by him.
Christian Science, disclosing the mental causation of all things, shows the paramount necessity for governing these expectations, unless mistaken ones are to be permitted to invade one's harmony and make depredations upon his peace and wellbeing. The things to which Job of old looked forward were undesirable, and because they filled his expectations he experienced them; for we find him declaring, "The thing which I greatly feared is come upon me." Christian Science does not stop there, for it reveals scientifically the basis for right expectations. It shows how to raise them to the plane upon which they should rest, and firmly establish them there. It also provides for us the armor with which to gird ourselves against the attacks of the baneful expectations of others.
