CHRISTIAN SCIENCE is not on the plane of any system of medicine or human mode of treatment, and its work is far beyond the mere healing of sickness. Its whole purpose is to demonstrate the supremacy of Mind, the only Cause, of which man is the manifestation.

Had that divine Mind been obeyed by mankind and the life-rules of the Man of Galilee been adopted by applying his Principle to concrete problems, the world would never have sunk into the darkness of the succeeding ages. But when the Holy Spirit was cast out of religion, and false ambition, worldliness, and temporal power crept into its precincts, the realization of the divine law of Life was lost. Then, in the suffering which followed error, the appeal was made to faith in some material means of relief, instead of to the power of righteousness and spiritual law, which are the antidote for sin and all its consequences. Thus the leading religious systems of the times advocated less the importance of spiritual renewing to remove the cause of sickness, than the retrograding alternative of resorting to matter in the desire to neutralize the effects of sin. Christ Jesus, however, when healing, showed the necessity that sin be forsaken and forgiven, that is, destroyed; and in explaining the inevitable penalty for sin and the way to gain freedom from suffering, he said, "Sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee."

It may be useless to conjecture how long ago we might have had the kingdom of God on earth had Jesus Christ's system of healing—relieving the human mind of error by the Science of divine Mind-healing—been universally accepted. We know, however, if we believe the Lord's Prayer, that His kingdom is to come to us as we become individually responsive to the demands of the divine Life, and aid in the establishment of this kingdom of Truth and Love in the hearts and experiences of men. The question we should each ask ourselves is, What am I doing to help in the upbuilding of this kingdom? How useful have I been in leading others so to live that we can say, "The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ"? How much have I done to verify that prayer of the Master and further its efficacy in the understanding and lives of others?

As Christian Science teaches that we cannot sin without suffering, even so it teaches that all right-doing has its reward. The penalty for sin is not alone in the degradation of character, the dimming of spiritual perception, but also in a train of consequences, which, sooner or later, compel repentance and reformation. "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." The mere physical manifestations of cancer, consumption, or any other disease, are less harmful than moral offences,—diseases of character. Man lives best and most by doing all the good he can in pursuance of God's will. He does not then look for health in a state of the flesh, nor for ease in materiality. He learns that "it is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing." He sees that he must rise to this realm of the ever-present Real through spiritual consciousness, a life redeemed by following Christ in his glorious works and glorified being.

To acquire this elevation, we must meet the divine demand to love God supremely and our neighbor in the way most helpful to him. "Love worketh no ill to his neighbor: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law." Any ill wrought to another, immediately brings to the wrongdoer forfeiture of the power and presence of the God who is Love. Hence, it is impossible for a wilful evil-doer to demonstrate Christian Science, or to remain a Christian Scientist, if he has been called by the name.

Christian Science expresses the activity of those qualities which constitute the divine Nature or Spirit, and it frees mankind from the control of the lower mental and physical elements; while hypnotism is an emanation of the mortal or corruptible mind, which acts through the suggestions of the material senses. Every genuine Christian, reflecting the Mind of Christ, can neither hypnotize nor be hypnotized. Evil, claiming to be mind, is really not intelligence, for it cannot produce divine and orderly results. But in the Science of divine Mind, the Christian has a safeguard, and can defend himself against the suggestions of sin, disease, and death, inasmuch as he is governed by the Christ-mind and claims only the righteousness of the Lord.

The latter-day evils of hypnotic control, evil suggestion. and all other misuse of mind power to harm another's health, morals, or happiness, can be overcome with good, with the Love that worketh no ill, but seeketh another's good.

The action of Christian Science in the household, as well as with the individual, is to produce harmony. Its demonstration brings out goodness, reciprocal kindness, and wholesome conditions in the home, and it adds a deep sacredness to all the ties therein which uplift, comfort, and bless. It prevents estrangement and dishonor in the family, and upholds the perpetual ideal of a beautiful life permeated with graces of Christian virtue. In "Miscellaneous Writings" (page 100), one of the most important works on Christian Science by Mary Baker G. Eddy, we read, "Pure humanity, friendship, home, the interchange of love, bring to earth a foretaste of Heaven. They unite terrestrial and celestial joys, and crown them with blessings infinite."

We have practical life-laws for our daily guidance and advancement in the Mind that was with Christ Jesus, expressing the infinite and ever available meanings of divinity embracing humanity. These laws are for the government of all, so that each many rise, through spiritual force, to the grandeur of man who is the reflection of infinite Good, limitless Life, Love, and Truth.

Alice Jennings.
In Macon (Ga.) News.