The good which is accomplished in church, society, and government derives from individual demonstration—from the proof in individual experience that divine Principle heals the sick and destroys sin. Such demonstration is the result of prayerful communion with God; of confident affirmation of His omnipotent goodness; of the active denial and rejection of any suggestion of a power apart from Him. Nothing can take the place of this spiritually mental work. The success of the Christian Science Cause, the vitality of its church, are directly dependent on individual understanding and demonstration. Every proof of the truths of Christian Science, however humble, contributes to the strength of the Cause.

Every member of the Church of Christ, Scientist, if he is proving the power of Christian Science in his individual experience by overcoming sickness and sin and witnessing to the beauty of the Christ-spirit, is helping to forward the Christian Science movement. In the stress of human activity incident to church work we need to be alert lest we neglect this individual spiritual demonstration. Rebuking the Pharisees' outward conformity to rules and their neglect of spiritual things, Jesus said, "These ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone."

The incalculable influence which Christian Science is exerting on human thinking today is due to the fact that Truth is being proved and utilized individually. Let the earnest worker remember this when he is tempted to believe that his work is ineffectual, that his right thinking is of little avail for mankind.

A Christian Scientist had worked for a long period to find the solution of a problem. Day after day she declared the truth about the problem as she had learned to do in Christian Science. There were times when she was tempted to give up. What did her individual problem matter anyway before the seeming enormity of world problems! But she refused to listen to the suggestions of apathy and discouragement, and she persisted. She studied the problem from all angles. Some days fresh light would come to her concerning it, but many times her work seemed to be merely reiterating statements concerning the same fundamental truths. Gradually, she began to feel within herself the effectiveness of the truth which she has been declaring. And then one day, in a most definite and unexpected manner, the problem was solved beautifully and completely.

The student was very grateful for this experience. Not only did she rejoice in the release which came to her, but she began to see that every demonstration can be made to serve and to enrich the Cause of Christian Science. It awakened her to realize how important is individual demonstration in relation to church work. She saw that unless she brought to her church activities the richness and assurance of individual proof, her work would be barren of true results and her own realization would soon be depleted.

Since salvation is the ultimate of demonstration, it must be individual. The Bible admonishes us, "Work our your own salvation with fear and trembling." And the teaching of Christian Science leave us in no doubt on this point. We learn therein that none of us can escape the responsibilities which fall upon us. The working out of our own salvation calls for active faith in God's willingness to deliver us from all evil. We are not obeying this behest, however, when we try to assume the responsibility for our brother's thinking or when we attempt to rely on others to do the work that is rightfully ours.

It is the human sense of affection which prompts us to hold to our loved ones and endeavor to push them into the kingdom of heaven, when what we need to do is to loose them and let them go, realizing that all true activity comes from the one Mind. This does not mean that we assume an attitude of indifference toward them. We must persistently know that all are always in "the kingdom of his dear Son." We leave all free to awaken to this fact.

Much of value may be learned by considering the story of the prodigal son in this connection. The father in Jesus' parable gave to his younger son, at his request, his portion of the inheritance and let him go out into the world. He did not try to manage the son's expenditure of his inheritance. He did not follow him with anxious thoughts, nor did he go with him and try to spare him the hard experience which were to teach him to distinguish spiritual food from the husks of materiality and to recognize the futility of material living. He did not deprive him of these priceless lessons. The father doubtless was confident that some day the son would return to his father's house. This was in no sense a repudiation. The father's warm affection reached out to him "when he was yet a great way off," reached out with the understanding that in reality he had never been separated from his father's home.

Mrs. Eddy defines "salvation" in part as "Life, Truth, and Love understood and demonstrated as supreme over all" (ibid.,p. 593). No one can understand Life, Truth, and Love for us—that understanding must be gained in our own consciousness. The sooner we recognize this fact and assume the responsibility which it entails, the more rapid will be our progress toward full salvation.

This individual working out of one's own salvation is a joyous unfolding of the truth. As we understand and demonstrate Life, Truth, and Love "as supreme over all," we see our own true selfhood and that of our fellow man, and thus help him far beyond what any personal interference with his work might accomplish. What a blessed sense of freedom and peace comes to him who willingly accepts this task of working out his own salvation and lovingly leaves his brother to do the same, knowing that God is the source of all true activity!