Sometime ago I became deeply involved in a business problem which caused great dismay and threatened business failure. I realized the basic cause of this frustration was disobedience and lack of self-discipline, yet all mortal efforts to extricate myself seemed only to plunge me deeper into the mire of fearful thinking, which finally resulted in a nervous collapse. In desperation, I called upon a Christian Science practitioner for help.
She said, "Young man, you get back into 'Church' and stay there and take into 'Church' with you everyone that your thoughts dwell on." I knew that she was referring to Mary Baker Eddy's definition of "Church," which begins with these words: "The structure of Truth and Love" (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 583), and her statement so startled me and aroused my thinking that I sincerely began trying in every instance to see not only myself as the true, unhampered, buoyant expression of Mind but each of my business contacts in the same light. Competition was recognized as a blessing because it required greater and more efficient service.
I gained a fuller realization that since Church as we understand it in Christian Science is a state of consciousness, all man's activity is in Mind. This understanding brought complete freedom from the bondage formerly imposed by self-mesmeric thoughts of inadequacy, inferiority, dread, and self-pity.
