STUDENTS of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," cannot fail to note that Mrs. Eddy frequently emphasizes the necessity for forming perfect thought-models, in order that one may progress in the way of righteousness. More than three hundred years ago Shakespeare wrote, "There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so;" and that he wrote truly, many are constantly proving out of their daily experiences. How many, for instance, who have made some advance in the study and practice of Christian Science have found their views and opinions fundamentally changed, aye, revolutionized, by their improved way of thinking!
Most of us have been brought up to believe that man is weak and sinful, and consequently this has become the generally accepted concept of man. But as soon as we begin to think rightly about man, recognizing him as God's image and likeness, this true concept is adopted as our model. Mrs. Eddy writes (ibid., pp. 476, 477):"Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour saw God's own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick." It is therefore incumbent upon every follower of the Master to strive through the understanding of Christian Science to do likewise.
How is this to be accomplished? How are we to set about mentally reversing the false teachings of the ages, teachings which underlie our day-to-day experiences? Do we not encounter sin and multifarious other forms of discord as we pursue our way through what is often designated as this "vale of woe"? How, then, are we to prove to ourselves, and others, that these discords are not the realities of existence? Fidelity to Truth impels us to limn upon the canvas of our minds only true thoughts. But if we reject these false thought-models, does not mortal belief ask what remains to us as an inspiration for our picture, since material conditions seem so very real that anyone venturing to deny them and see beyond them is dubbed a Utopian visionary? And yet, if we continue to chisel our thinking along the conventional lines of materiality, do we not assist in perpetuating those evils? But one who is true to himself and to humanity surely desires through individual right thinking to uplift and to purify human thought and experience.
