Summing up a discussion about the importance of mental discipline, I read to my Sunday School class of high school seniors Paul's counsel, "Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things."Phil. 4:8; The response from the class was a thoughtful, hushed "Wow!" whispered by one and echoed throughout the class.
Is it possible to live in the mainstream of life today and still think what is true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report, virtuous, and praiseworthy? Mrs. Eddy, who practiced the truth revealed to her by God, writes: "Know, then, that you possess sovereign power to think and act rightly, and that nothing can dispossess you of this heritage and trespass on Love. If you maintain this position, who or what can cause you to sin or suffer?"Pulpit and Press, p. 3;
True discipline of our own thought is not an intellectual exercise, not a matter of human will. It is a divinely impelled discipline, achieved through communing with God and thereby reflecting His knowing. It is the result of understanding that in truth we are not physical mortals but spiritual ideas of God, that our consciousness reflects the divine and so is ever filled with God's pure thoughts. In proportion as we recognize that we are His work, that the only source of our thoughts is the Mind which is God, we will reflect the divine standard of mental purity in our daily affairs.
