A Dictionary definition of "standard" is, in part, "that which is set up and established by authority as a rule for the measure of ... value, or quality." Christian Science teaches us that that which should be set" up in consciousness is the absolute, undeviating truth, the truth which Christ Jesus used with such power and healing results that none could doubt its efficacy; the truth of which our Master spoke with such assurance and certainty when he said, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." This truth Christian Science teaches us to establish in consciousness; it reveals to us God's omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence, and the spiritual qualities of joy, inspiration, gratitude, intelligence, purity, and so forth, and thus proves the nonexistence of all that is unlike good.
But how, one young student kept asking herself, can I live this truth continually in my daily contacts in a world of such seeming strife and contraries? Am I protecting my standard? And then one day in her office a mishap occurred from which she learned a valuable lesson. A letter had been very carefully set up on the multigraph by an experienced operator. The operator was called to the telephone and one inexperienced with multigraphing came in. Wishing to be helpful, she picked up the drum to put it on the multigraph ready to run. She tipped it sideways, and suddenly the whole letter was on the floor in a jumble of confusion. The letter, although complete in setup, had not been locked in by the line-lock clips used to hold each line firmly in place. Now the type must be sorted and the letter set up again.
This experience gave the young student of Christian Science much food for thought. She herself had been brought up in a Christian Science Sunday School. In earlier classes she had memorized the Ten Commandments, the Beatitudes, and other newline Bible verses and chapters, together with passages from "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy. In later classes she had learned how to study and utilize the Lesson-Sermons in the Christian Science Quarterly. All these lessons were helping her to set up in consciousness the standard of perfection demanded by Christian Science. But had she locked in each statement of truth firmly with demonstration and proof? This question caused her to think back over the years that had followed her Sunday school training. With joy she realized how easy it had been for her to resist the temptation to indulge in smoking or social drinking even while others around her partook of these so-called pleasures. During her normal school days, while studying psychology she might very easily have become confused had she not realized that now was the time to protect her standard.
