The tragic ignorance of God and of spiritual law has cut deep in the affairs of men and nations through many centuries. It seems almost incredible that after nearly two thousand years of Christianity the tendency of mankind in general is still to cling to a blind faith in some far-off Deity instead of to seek and to find a demonstrable understanding of the ever-present divine Father, the eternal Giver of all good. In what are termed the physical sciences, demonstrable knowledge is studiously sought after. How much more should demonstrable understanding of the Science supreme, the Science of infinite Mind, or God, the Christ Science, understood by the great Galilean Prophet, be sought after and studied! Tragedy has indeed stalked through the centuries because of ignorance of this Science. Surely it is time for mankind to cease from regarding God as an unknowable, awesome Being, possessing human characteristics, a God who is sometimes wrathful, sometimes afflictive, sometimes vengeful, sometimes loving—a God of changing moods. Sin, sickness, sorrow, catastrophes, and calamities will continue to harass mankind so long as God is wrongly regarded as the sender of these ills or even as being conscious of and allowing them. The Ruler of the universe must be rightly understood; then His divine power can be demonstrated in overcoming error and evil and establishing and maintaining harmony and peace.

Christian Science declares and demonstrates that God is immutable Love, the divine Principle of the universe, the one supreme, governing intelligence, or Mind, the only creator, eternally guarding and protecting His perfect creation. The carnal or mortal mind and its concomitant, matter, together with all their supposed effects, are unknown to Deity; therefore they have no true existence. "Matter and its effects—sin, sickness, and death—are states of mortal mind which act, react, and then come to a stop. They are not facts of Mind. They are not ideas, but illusions. Principle is absolute." This statement by the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 283), is a fundamental teaching of Christian Science, the understanding of which confers ability to demonstrate the power of divine Mind in human affairs. A little girl was asked, "What do you do to keep from getting sick?" She replied: "Well, I know that it is only mortal mind that tells people they can be sick, and I won't have anything to do with that old lie. I know that God is the only Mind, and because I am God's child, I can have only what comes from God." The world needs to cherish the child thought, to obey the admonition of St. John, "Little children, keep yourselves from idols," and so to render allegiance to the one Mind.

The illusive effects of those states of mortal mind which "act, react, and then come to a stop" may be seen all about us, and should give mankind pause. Mortal mind's modus is lawless, because it is utterly at variance with the orderly processes of divine Principle, or Mind. Every wrong condition, whether it be manifested in the human body or the body politic, is brought about by false mental action, action divergent from and opposed to the omniaction of the infinite divine Mind. Because God, divine Mind, is omniactive, and the effects of His activity are wholly beneficent, mortal mind's so-called activity, alias false, material thinking and its effects, must be delusive, illusive, and harmful.

An understanding of the omniaction of Mind discloses the falsity of all the vaunted power of so-called mortal mind action and reaction. When Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were cast into the burning fiery furnace, they experienced no harm from the flames; there was not even the smell of smoke on their clothing after the ordeal. They recognized no other power, law, or activity except that of the one omnipotent divine Mind. Other demonstrations of God's power, particularly Christ Jesus, might be cited as having nullified completely mortal mind's so-called laws; and today the omniaction of divine Mind is being increasingly demonstrated by earnest students of Christian Science.

The widespread belief in material action and reaction strikes deeper than is realized, because all material action and reaction are products of mortal mind, and therefore harmful. But Christian Science corrects false material thinking, and dissipates its effects by the understanding that God is the only Mind, thus proving mortal mind and its so-called thinking to be illusive and unreal. Christian Science brings to light the great truth that man is the expression of the one Mind, God, and that his natural province is to think those thoughts which ceaselessly emanate from Mind. Mortal, material thinking is a perversion of true thinking. When true thinking supplants falsity in the human consciousness, then Christ's Christianity will be recognized generally as scientific and demonstrable, and man's God-given dominion over untoward conditions will be proved extensively and increasingly in social, civil, political, national, and international affairs, until the First Commandment and the Golden Rule become supreme in the affections of all humanity.

The Christian nations should earnestly shape their course toward the understanding of God, Mind, as the only power, law, and activity; and of man as eternally governed by divine Mind. It is by this understanding that peace on earth will be definitely established. Mrs. Eddy has stated in "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" (p. 281), "On this basis the brotherhood of all peoples is established; namely, one God, one Mind, and 'Love thy neighbor as thyself,' the basis on which and by which the infinite God, good, the Father-Mother Love, is ours and we are His in divine Science." It is heartening to know that humanity's concepts and ideals are steadily improving, for the omniaction of Mind is being demonstrated increasingly in many lands through the understanding of Christian Science.