To everyone today this assurance of inspiration and succor recorded by Isaiah is practically available: "I the Lord ... will ... give thee ... for a light of the Gentiles; to open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house." The "I," the power of God operating through Christ, Truth, reveals to men the open door of freedom through spiritual understanding.

In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mrs. Eddy writes (p. 99): "Truth has furnished the key to the kingdom, and with this key Christian Science has opened the door of the human understanding. None may pick the lock nor enter by some other door."

He who would gain health, purity, and peace on the unshakable foundation of Spirit can do so by grasping and applying the truths contained in the Christian Science textbook. Thus enlightened, he can exchange material self-deception and bondage for spiritual understanding and dominion. More than can be numbered are the individuals who have been and are being blessed with new ideals and means of attainment through their application of Christian Science, the truth of being, to every human problem.

To the angel of the church of Philadelphia came the message, "I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it," and the meaning of Philadelphia, we are told, is brotherly love. Divine Love, infinitely free and freeing, is present to be reflected in thought and expressed in daily life. Why submit to thankless bondage when thankful freedom is here for all who seek and find spirituality?

No one is cut off from universal Love save by false beliefs, and these can be surrendered. As Truth's strong grasp is felt in the receptive consciousness, error's seeming hold relaxes. Christian Science shows one exactly how to dismiss erroneous thoughts, traits, and habits, and emphasizes the necessity for doing this without evasion or procrastination. In Love and its reflection there is no enslavement of corporeal sense, no sinful instinct, no fear or pain, no antipathy or hate. Hence, to reflect Love is gradually to exchange discord and woe for the understanding of spiritual perfection and bliss.

"When will man pass through the open gate of Christian Science into the heaven of Soul, into the heritage of the first born among men? Truth is indeed 'the way'" (Science and Health, p. 535). The individual must himself go through the open gate of spiritual understanding; that is to say, he must acquire and apply this understanding for himself. But he can, if he desires, be helped on occasions to progress by more experienced students of Christian Science who stand ready to show one who is weary of aimless bypaths how he can step out into man's native and unforfeited spiritual freedom.

Speaking in metaphor to his disciples of the Christianly way of salvation, Jesus said, "I was in prison, and ye came unto me." Finding them puzzled by this statement, he said, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." Good, God's reflection, is the primal and ineffaceable reality of each one's being. It is his true individuality. And because this is so, there is in every heart something to respond to the wonder of the Christ, the true idea of being. Deep in each one's consciousness there is some glint of the Christ, some perhaps unacknowledged yearning for righteousness and for true prosperity—a prosperity which is exempt from sin and hazard.

Deep and diverse are human needs, and the Christian Scientist's whole consciousness must be aglow with love and compassion in order that he may discern and respond to the most hidden human needs through divine Love. The reflection of Love is all the individual needs, all that the nations need, in order to find unity and concord and blessedness.

In saying, "There is none good but one, that is, God," Jesus indicated that good is not a virtue acquired as a personal asset and subject to loss through temptation, but that the one good, emanating from the one God, is eternally manifested in each one's God-given individuality.

On page 11 of her Message to The Mother Church for 1902 Mrs. Eddy writes, "Divine Love waits and pleads to save mankind—and awaits with warrant and welcome, grace and glory, the earth-weary and heavy-laden who find and point the path to heaven." Christian Science awakens the good seemingly dormant in human consciousness. It bids one know and prove that this good is eternal, unmarred, our real heritage, to be understood and enjoyed now and forever; and in this complete heritage health is included. Then let no fear, no pride, no mental apathy, moral cowardice, or discouragement, prevent a single one from turning his face to the open door of spiritual understanding and allowing his footsteps to be directed into paths of health, peace, and everlasting progress.

Violet Ker Seymer