How many times we prolong painful human experiences and delay the complete solution of our problems through failure to go forward and prove by our actions our confidence in the truth we declare. As Christian Scientists we make scientific declarations concerning man's sonship with God and his consequent immunity from sin, sickness, lack, and unhappiness. We affirm that completeness and dominion are man's by reflection, and then if we are not alert we may find ourselves looking to material sense testimony, forgetting our Leader's counsel to "act as possessing all power from Him in whom we have our being" (Science and Health, p. 264).

We do not declare the truth in order to transform material beliefs into spiritual facts, nor on the assumption that sin, sickness, and lack are something now, but that if we declare the truth vehemently enough they will become nothing. Our sole reason for contending persistently for the truth is so to establish it in our consciousness that we shall no longer be deceived by evil's illusive claim to reality, but instead see the spiritual facts of being so clearly that evil will disappear as a false belief, and consequently as a manifestation in our experience—even as a mistake made in working out a mathematical problem vanishes before the application of the mathematical fact.

Man's perfection is a present fact, not merely a future possibility. Jesus established his thinking so absolutely on the basis of Spirit that he reckoned not at all with matter. He stood at the tomb of Lazarus with his consciousness so imbued with the allness of Life and the utter certainty of man's inseparability from Life, that he felt no urge to peer within the sepulcher to ascertain the physical state of his friend before uttering the authoritative command to "come forth." He knew with certainty that right where death and decay claimed to be, there Life was, ever present, eternal, and indestructible. He made no concession to the belief of time, and prescribed no period of resuscitation or recuperation to complete the healing. He acted as one possessing all power from God.

This must be our attitude toward unsolved problems. A passive, theoretical acceptance of Truth is not enough; it will never enable us to stand "undisturbed amid the jarring testimony of the material senses" (ibid., p. 306). A deep spiritual conviction is required to exalt our thought above the mortal and enable us to see, with the clear eye of spiritual discernment, things as they really are in the universe of Mind.

When the children of Israel were confronted with the Red Sea, in their journey out of the bondage of Egypt to the promised land, where freedom awaited them, they were so overwhelmed with fear that they were determined to turn back. Moses, however, looking to God for guidance, was admonished thus: "Wherefore criest thou unto me? speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward." And it was not until they disregarded the physical aspect of the situation, were obedient to God's command and went forward, that the waters parted and they went across safely.

Does the Red Sea stretch before us in the guise of a threatening condition of lack, loss of position, or a formidable business situation? Let us not be mesmerized by the seeing of the eye or the hearing of the ear, whose testimony is never reliable. Let us rather look beyond the finite, knowing that Mind's infinite resources are always available to Mind's idea, man. Since man can never be separated or exist apart from Mind, he can never be out of his right place or lack the intelligence, ability, courage, or wisdom necessary to solve any problem. After establishing these spiritual facts in our consciousness, we are ready to take the next and equally important step of going forward and putting into action what we know scientifically to be true. What is the result? Why, we too have the glorious experience of seeing the waters of mortal mind divide, enabling us to go forward on "dry land," that is, on the solid basis of scientific demonstration, to a higher plane of vision and action.

Sometimes we come face to face with the Red Sea when working out a problem of sickness. In spite of our steadfast adherence to Truth, error clamors more and more insistently, until the waters seem to lap about our very feet. Shall we listen to error's suggestion that maybe the waters will not part at all in this instance, or that perhaps we had better beat a retreat toward some other means of healing? No! That is the time to hold tighter than ever to the Father's hand and obey the loving command to go forward, remembering that it is our heritage, as the sons of God, to "act as possessing all power from Him in whom we have our being."

One such occasion stands out as a very sacred experience. A little child was stricken with a so-called acute disease. Much consecrated work by the mother and a Christian Science practitioner was done, but he seemed to grow rapidly worse. About the third day, upon the insistence of others, a physician was called in to see the child. According to his verdict the case was hopeless. Here, indeed, was the Red Sea! But the faithful workers went forward, refusing to accept any law but the law of God, their faces turned steadfastly away from matter to Spirit. Once more the waters of fear and false belief parted, and it was proved that the way forward leads to safety, health, and freedom.

The wonderful thing about going forward is that each time it becomes easier to silence the arguments of error that would intimidate us and paralyze with fear our advancing steps; for through each experience rightly faced one grows mightily in faith, meekness, and humility. One learns that the only way to walk safely is to walk close to God, to reflect Mind constantly in one's thinking, to be obedient to Truth, submissive to Love. This evangelization of human thought brings to light the real man, of whom the Father is forever saying, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."