Christ Jesus said, "Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things," and our Leader defines "Elias" in part as "Christian Science, with which can be discerned the spiritual fact of whatever the material senses behold" (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 585).

It may be observed that some sincere students of Christian Science in their warfare of extermination against all human beliefs are apt to be so dismayed by the odiousness of evil that they do not realize the full joy and satisfaction they should have in their work, and are sorely tempted to become discouraged. These workers need more clearly to realize the truth of Mrs. Eddy's statement, already quoted, that Christian Science enables us to discern the spiritual fact of which the material belief is a counterfeit, and to prove that this realization gives us dominion over material belief.

"Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things"—restore the right sense of body, of business, home, and environment, the right sense of God and man. Jesus said, "I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil." In fulfilling the law of God, he restored the normal sense of things, for in the light of his clear discernment of the spiritual fact, no abnormal sense or condition could claim presence or reality.

We may not yet be ready for the ascension, but to the extent that Christian Science comes to our consciousness, it begins to "restore all things" in our experience. Instead of losing interest in people and in business and material surroundings, as many sincere Christian Scientists are tempted to do, we need to realize that in the process of evangelizing human consciousness we progress by improving human beliefs instead of attempting to discard them altogether, before we are ready for that step. Christian Science should, and does, help us to succeed in every line of right human endeavor. But we sometimes see individuals who had formerly been successful in business activities making a reality of the dishonesty, meanness, and sordidness with which they come in contact, and wanting to run away from it all instead of overcoming their belief in it as real. Perhaps Jonah felt that way when "the word of the Lord" came to him saying, "Arise, go to Nineveh, ... and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me." And because he disobeyed this command, he was self-punished. So the Christian Scientist who shrinks from rightly facing the conditions of modern business, or government, or society, and is overwhelmed by a sense of the wickedness he sees there, must seek deliverance from this state of thought that he may be free to carry the message of Truth to the "people of Nineveh"—the world of sense.

Christian Science is needed in every right activity, for human consciousness is to be evangelized, and the best way for mankind to be convinced of the truth of Christian Science is to see it demonstrated practically in the lives of Christian Scientists. Instead of seeing business as mean and sordid, the Christian Scientist should apply his understanding of what is true to every situation, and realize the activity and power of spiritual ideas in place of discordant beliefs. Instead of believing in dishonesty, suspicion, and greed, he should see the qualities which reflect God, see the law of divine Mind in continuous operation, instead of the lie of mortal mind, thus helping to bring to the weary and heavy-laden the joy of spiritual understanding, where they may find rest.

In Science and Health we read (p. 240), "Remember that mankind must sooner or later, either by suffering or by Science, be convinced of the error that is to be overcome." We do not like to hear the words "by suffering," but suffering comes from our clinging to material beliefs. If we would let these beliefs go instantly, there would be no suffering, and this is the scientific way, but few of us seem willing, at first, to follow it.

When Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me," he meant that only by the kind of thinking he did, could any man come to the Father; and the Christ-way of thinking is "the way, the truth, and the life." In "Unity of Good" (p. 55) we read: "'The way,' in the flesh, is the suffering which leads out of the flesh. 'The way,' in Spirit, is 'the way' of Life, Truth, and Love, redeeming us from the false sense of the flesh and the wounds it bears." Paul said, "If we suffer, we shall also reign with him." If, through suffering, we find our way "our of the flesh" into the way Christ Jesus revealed, we shall reign with him, with and because of true thinking.

In the New Testament we read: "There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe." This statement does not mean that a personal God sent a man named John to bear witness. It means that the Christ so illumined the consciousness of John that it "sent" or impelled him to bear witness to others "of the Light" that had dawned upon him. In the same sense, every Christian Scientist is "a man sent from God ... to bear witness of the Light" that has come to him through the revelation of Christian Science; and when, through spiritual enlightenment, the call comes to each one of us, let us follow the example of John, who, when he was "sent," also "came" and bore "witness of the Light."