WHEN we want to know how we look, we can study our reflections in the mirror. When we want to know how our voices sound, we can use a tape recorder. But we do not always realize that an honest appraisal of our experiences will show us what our thinking is like. It may not be any more gratifying to come face to face with our thoughts than to catch a sudden glimpse of ourselves in the mirror or to hear a recording of our voices for the first time; but Christian Science explains that we must not shrink from this introduction or from what it discloses.
Mrs. Eddy asks in "Retrospection and Introspection" (p. 86), "Art thou still unacquainted with thyself?" And then she gives us this advice: "Then be introduced to this self. 'Know thyself!' as said the classic Grecian motto. Note well the falsity of this mortal self! Behold its vileness, and remember this poverty-stricken 'stranger that is within thy gates.' Cleanse every stain from this wanderer's soiled garments, wipe the dust from his feet and the tears from his eyes, that you may behold the real man, the fellow-saint of a holy household."
Christian Science makes it clear that the purpose of getting to know ourselves humanly is not to study the mortal self, to admire it, excuse it, or deplore it and then go on indulging it in the same way as before. Every personal idiosyncrasy is simply the distortion of a spiritual quality and must be discarded if our true, spiritual individuality is to be expressed.
