In Leviticus it is recorded that this inspirational message came to Moses on Mount Sinai: "If thy brother be waxen poor, and fallen in decay with thee; then thou shalt relieve him: yea, though he be a stranger, or a sojourner; that he may live with thee. Take thou no usury of him, or increase; but fear thy God; that thy brother may live with thee."

Yes, we may as well face it— face it squarely and unafraid. In this world of shrinking space, and interlaced problems, of growing interdependence among men and nations, human beings must learn to live with each other. Are eyebrows raised questioningly at this simple pronouncement? Does someone say, What have mortals ever done since "Adam delved and Eve span" but live together? Yet have they really lived together? Mortals in large measure have only experienced a sense of material existence, and have not tasted that Life whose very essence is Love. In this sense they have not been living with their brother; they have existed in many hostile camps, for the most part under an armed truce.

The Master came to a people torn by dissension, religious and civil. The haughty Jewish Pharisee drew aside his pious skirts from the detested Gentile and would have no dealings with the outcast Samaritan. The proud Roman centurion would not dare to fraternize with the lowly Galilean. Paul, in one of his epistles, shows the great diversity of thought in those days when he speaks of the Greek, the Jew, the Barbarian, Scythian, bond and free; and who can picture the amazement of his hearers when he stated that these diversities were all to be done away in Christ— when the truth about God and man was understood and demonstrated?

Centuries before Paul, the patriarch Abram voiced the age-old longing of the human family for the true sense of brotherhood when he said to Lot: "Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herdmen and thy herdmen; for we be brethren." Apparently the chief stumblingblock all these years in the search for and demonstration of true brotherhood had been that the scientific rule for its attainment had not been revealed. Our Master taught the love of God, and the Apostle John enjoined upon his followers the exercise of Christian love and forbearance; but not until the coming of the great Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, have mortals been told how this precious realization may be attained.

In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," that remarkable volume which records Mrs. Eddy's sublime revelation, she defines God as Mind, as the divine Principle, Love. Oneness is the basic quality of Deity. Therefore, there can be only one infinite Mind. The ideas, expressions of this Mind, must forever be at one with their parent Mind and with each other. The textbook then gives this great, provable rule for the solving of the intricate problem of human relationship (pp. 469, 470): "With one Father, even God, the whole family of man would be brethren; and with one Mind and that God, or good, the brotherhood of man would consist of Love and Truth, and have unity of Principle and spiritual power which constitute divine Science."

The alert, consistent student of Christian Science, declaring daily, hourly, for the oneness of Mind and His ideas, can prove for himself and his fellows that it is possible here and now to experience happier, more harmonious, and more co-operative living. But, may interpose someone, what am I to do with an intolerable home situation? I have been trying to love, and to live with my brother, but my efforts are meeting with no response. Our wise Leader gives us this safe and sane counsel (ibid., pp. 66, 67): "Husbands and wives should never separate if there is no Christian demand for it." Then on the following page she adds significantly, "Hoping and working one should stick to the wreck, until an irresistible propulsion precipitates his doom or sunshine gladdens the troubled sea."

Many grateful hearts can bear witness to the fact that the power of divine Love has prevented the breaking up of homes and friendships. At his wife's insistence, a man who fancied himself much opposed to Christian Science once accompanied her to see a Christian Science practitioner. In the course of his conversation with the Scientist he betrayed an insufferable egotism and a very unlovely disposition. With no attempt to conceal his antipathy to his wife's religion, he remarked that she claimed she had been helped by Christian Science but that he had failed to see any evidence thereof. The Scientist quietly reminded him that her religion had without doubt enabled his wife to live with him all these years; whereas if she had not been divinely sustained and strengthened, their marriage might have gone on the rocks years before. Therefore, the fact that he still had a wife and a home he owed largely to Christian Science. Never again, therefore, could that husband truthfully aver that his wife's religion was unavailing.

How many times "sunshine gladdens the troubled sea" when wife or husband is given the courage and grace to "stick to the wreck." Human society as yet little knows its great debt to the Science of Christianity. This truth again and again saves homes, brings back wandering and mesmerized partners, and cements with Christian love and forbearance many strained family ties. If "an irresistible propulsion" under the guise of infidelity or injustice causes one to forsake the wreck of the matrimonial bark, the gentle leading of divine Love enables one to take the step without bitterness, and to leave with a blessing.

Where else but in lives touched by Christian Science could such a thing as the following incident take place? A woman, an earnest student of this great truth, was forced to forsake the wreck of her marriage when her husband proved faithless, and was legally separated from him. After a year or two of great unhappiness, the prodigal returned and asked her, not for reinstatement, but for Christian Science treatment. This was gladly given. True repentance led to healing, and when this good work was proved to be established the couple remarried. A happy, harmonious comradeship ensued, established on the rock of Christianity and Truth.

"That thy brother may live with thee"! Here is the goal of demonstration before every sincere student of this Science. What is the rule for its attainment? Knowing the oneness of Mind. In our homes, our churches, our contacts with our fellows, if this sublime yet simple fact is paramount in consciousness, how petty differences fade, enmities soften, and intolerance, selfishness, and greed lessen. There is one infinite Mind! Live with this truth, cling to it declare it a thousand times daily, if need be. When you talk to servant or employer, buyer or customer, friend or foe keep its melody singing in your thought. Knowing the oneness of Mind and its harmonious family of ideas, every separating, hating concept must eventually relapse into its native unreality. We begin to live with the brother, and the brother with us. We happily glimpse the truth of Pope's great lines:

John Randall Dunn