In the twenty-second chapter of Luke it is recorded that Christ Jesus made the following statement to Peter: "Satan hath desired to have you, ... but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not." Words vibrant with meaning today when the world prays for faith!

What is this faith which so illumined the healing ministry of Jesus, and which he deemed so essential that he prayed Peter might possess it? Certainly it was no wavering hope to which Jesus referred. To him faith was an active, constant, unwavering fidelity, a spiritual understanding of the unity of God and man. It included courage and steadfastness undaunted by obstacles.

If the synagogue cast him out, refusing the truth he brought it, Jesus spent no time in self-pity or seclusion; instead, he carried his message to the roadside throngs. On one occasion, we are told, he "continued all night in prayer to God."

In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 579) Mary Baker Eddy defines the word "Abraham" thus: "Fidelity; faith in the divine Life and in the eternal Principle of being." She also points out that "this patriarch illustrated the purpose of Love to create trust in good, and showed the life-preserving power of spiritual understanding."

Christian Science reveals God as divine Principle, Love, Life, and Truth. Divine Principle is the creator of the universe, including man, the source of inexhaustible good, the governing Principle of all real being, the abiding place of peace.

No missile of wrath can penetrate the armor of Love; hate falls powerless before spiritual understanding. Death is destitute of reality before the fact of eternal Life. The continuity of all life is included in divine Life; never is Life in matter or corporeality. God is the Life of man.

Immortal Truth is the reality of all things; in the presence of its actuality falsity and error retreat into nothingness. Regardless of the circumstance or situation, fidelity to Truth gives security. Armed with Truth, clad in spiritual Love, and conscious that life is eternal, unmeasured by mortal concepts of time, we are equipped to prove the authority and power of good to overcome every form of evil that may present itself to us.

In proving the power of divine Principle, Jesus took all the human footsteps which led to the cross, but those same footsteps led to the resurrection. Divine Principle also demands of us that we take the human footsteps which turn from pleasure or idle loitering in materiality, and take up the cross, if we are to share the joy of the resurrection. If we are faithful to the demands of Love, we shall find eternal life.

Fidelity to Principle is not a state of inert, fearful waiting. It is the active, spontaneous, joyful expectancy of good, the expectancy of fulfillment. Did not Jesus declare of his purpose, "I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil"? To fill to overflowing barren, fearful, empty lives with courage, joy, and usefulness!

In the confusion and fear of these present days the "life-preserving power" of faith comes as the heavenly manna of old. Day by day, strengthened by this divine understanding, we can go our way serene and secure.

Error would, if it could, beguile us into wistful dreaming, fear, and self-pity; it would suggest to us that there is so little we can do, that the seeming power of evil is so great that our good is misunderstood. It may tell us, when our human plans do not work out as we think they should, that we do not know enough, that there is no use trying to be faithful.

Let us remember the woman who with courage, humility, and confidence pushed her way through the throng that she might touch but the hem of the Master's garment. And her faith won healing for her, just as our fidelity will win healing and fulfillment for us. Fidelity to Truth brings healing, for Truth is the liberator from every form of bondage.

For some of us there are places in the line of battle, for others there are days of labor, but for all of us there is the call to faith—faith in the ultimate victory of good. We can all express faith in God, good, in silent prayers of gratitude—gratitude for the truth that is sweeping away the curtains of darkness so that eternal Life and Love may be more fully understood by mankind. Let us not falter between fear and fidelity.

In that dark night in the garden of long ago, Jesus cried out that he might be spared the suffering of the crucifixion. Earthly friends slept as he prayed, "and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood;" yet he was faithful: he chose the will of God, and thereby crowned all humanity with a new understanding of divine Love. Through this understanding we know that even if the night of error seems starless, the darkness of false beliefs will vanish in the dawn of the new day of spiritual understanding.

Great is the reward for fidelity. Mary Magdalene through fidelity was first to see the beloved Master after the resurrection. Her love and fidelity prompted her to this active expression of gratitude and affection. In the dim hours of the morning, according to the Gospel of John, she hurried to the lonely tomb in evidence of her love. What was her reward? She was the first to see the risen Jesus! Hers the joy of carrying the precious news of resurrection to the grieving disciples. It could not have dimmed her joy that they were bound to a belief of death and refused to receive her message of freedom; she had seen her Saviour! Hers had been the joy of perceiving the unreality of death and separation; hers had been the priceless privilege of talking with the Master! She had heard him call her name, and there in the garden he had spoken to her of the Father. What a glorious reward for fidelity!

Faithfully seeking the Christ, we too may perceive the unreality of sorrow, separation, and suffering. We too may find our Saviour in the understanding of Love, whence comes the faith that will not fail us.