THROUGHOUT the ages the sweet presence of the Christ has brought comfort to those who have responded to its healing message. So universal is the mission of the Christ that it has blessed people of all nations, irrespective of race or creed. Whatever of consolation is breathed through the Old Testament has resulted from the fact that the early prophets, patriarchs, and poets, whose words are recorded therein, had been touched by the Christ-spirit. This accounts for the comfort so many derive today from the Psalms, and from the words of Isaiah, Daniel, and other prophets and heroes of those early days.

When Jesus of Nazareth was on earth, he imparted comfort wherever he went. His understanding and manifestation of the eternal Christ, the spiritual idea of God, brought to humanity boundless blessings. To the sick he gave health; to the pain-racked surcease from suffering; to the repentant sinner hope, consolation, and courage; to the self-satisfied, the wounds that saved the receptive from impending danger, then the balm that healed the wounds. The New Testament records in detail those proofs of healing.

Mary Baker Eddy discerned Christ, Truth, more clearly than any other since Christ Jesus. In her beautiful poem "Christ My Refuge" (Poems, p. 12) she has thus described the coming of the Christ to her receptive thought:

Through studying Mrs. Eddy's writings and the sacred Scriptures, which they illumine, Christian Scientists, and others who read these writings receptively, are enjoying in some measure the presence of the healing Christ. It is consoling them in trials, rebuking them when they need rebuke, strengthening them when the heart grows faint, guiding them ever onward and upward. The work done by Christian Scientists today is resting as a benediction on the thoughts and lives of others. The prayers of Christian Scientists are reaching those who are responsive, and leading them in God's time and way to the haven of Christian Science. Then, having tasted of the blessings of the consoling Christ, these beneficiaries find joy in helping others to partake of similar blessings.

Many years ago a man who had struggled with ill-health and disappointment turned to the Bible for help, using it to the best of his ability and finding much comfort in its pages. Oftentimes in the midst of struggles at this period, there came to him a sense of the presence of the Christ, a sense that had not been imparted by the theological teaching he had received, but was plainly quite apart from it. He gained occasional glimpses of the fact that man is made in the image and likeness of God. While these glimpses were fleeting, the impression made by them was never forgotten, but remained as expressing an ideal to be more permanently cherished, understood, and enjoyed. At this time he found that the taste of tobacco after smoking became very repulsive, and he put away his pipe and cigarettes, never to take them up again. The supposedly harmless glass of wine was at the same time abandoned, never to be resumed. His detection of the physical effect of wine awakened him to the correctness of the wise man's statement, "It biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder." A few years later, he read the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy. Then he learned more of the comforting Christ, the hem of whose garment he had touched, and he became a student of Christian Science. He thus gained a definite understanding of the Science whereby he had been healed.

As this student learned more of the daily work done by Christian Scientists, he recognized that the prayers for all mankind offered by faithful workers throughout the world had reached his thought and experience with blessing, in accordance with the words written by Mrs. Eddy in Science and Health (p. 78): "Spirit blesses man, but man cannot 'tell whence it cometh.' By it the sick are healed, the sorrowing are comforted, and the sinning are reformed. These are the effects of one universal God, the invisible good dwelling in eternal Science."

The ranks of active Christian Scientists are being steadily enlarged, and for this we can be humbly grateful. Individual Christian Scientists are growing in grace, and that, too, is occasion for gratitude. But there is, besides, a mighty leavening power at work, far beyond what is as yet visible in church membership or in the individual experience of Christian Scientists. The thought-processes of the entire human family are being challenged, revised, and spiritualized. The so-called carnal mind may cling to its idols, but the one omnipotent divine Mind remains supreme. The Christ-power is unclasping the seeming hold of the carnal mind, in spite of the latter's vain strivings.

As Christian Scientists understand this better, they are greatly encouraged in the performance of their work. Much is visible and much is acknowledged as a result of their fidelity, whether in the healing practice or in some other department of our movement. But whether known or unknown, acknowledged or unacknowledged, the effect of the prayers of devout Christian Scientists is beyond human appraisal. Even in Christ Jesus' healing practice, as in the case of the ten lepers whom he healed, the healing for which acknowledgment was made and gratitude expressed, was only one tenth of the whole.

Indisputable evidence accumulates to show that individuals, tired of wrongdoing, are turning eagerly to a higher spiritual ideal and striving to live a better life. Reformers in all ages have been keenly conscious of human depravity, and have lifted their voices, according to their light, to improve conditions as they found them. Today the reformer, duly aware of the modern versions of ancient evils, can see something more heartening, namely, mankind's steady gain in the understanding of the Science of Christ. The demonstration of the Christ-power is in the ascendant.

The power which operates in Christian Science to heal disease, destroy sin, dispel sorrow, is at work also to promote international understanding and friendship, based on justice. More definitely than ever before in human history, the fact is seen and acknowledged that divine power controls the entire universe and man. Above the mistakes of mortals, beyond the din of the so-called carnal mind's imaginings, the sacred Christ-idea is leading on men and nations, comforting, cheering, rebuking, strengthening, ushering in a better, brighter, happier day.

Copyright, 1940, by The Christian Science Publishing Society, One, Norway Street, Boston, Massachusetts. Entered at Boston post office as second- class matter. Acceptance for mailing at a special rate of postage provided for in section 1103, Act of October 3, 1917, authorized on July 11, 1918.