The signs of the times give us today abundant evidence that rightly directed human thought is looking forward hopefully to much building and rebuilding, not only materially, but spiritually, in the restoration work that lies ahead. Like Abraham, many seekers after Truth are already looking "for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God." In Christian Science the nature of these foundations is being revealed and is leading us right back to the nature of God Himself.

The fundamentals of Christian Science are summed up in the following seven synonymous terms for God which are used by Mary Baker Eddy throughout the Christian Science textbook to indicate the nature and allness of Deity. On page 465of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," in the chapter entitled "Recapitulation," she writes, "God is incorporeal, divine, supreme, infinite Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love." This chapter, the author points out, was in the original class book from which she taught her first students, and ever since then it has stood and still stands, established by her in the Manual of The Mother Church as the basis for all class teaching and study in Christian Science, for in it are set forth and elucidated the true fundamentals of being. Six of these terms or synonyms were already used in the Bible in reference to God, but our Leader gave us in Science and Health another synonym for God—Principle—thus making the complete number of synonymous terms seven, a number which is stressed in the Apocalypse.

Christian Scientists study all the synonyms, and gratefully recognize that as Mrs. Eddy's revelation of divine Principle dawns on their thought, it illumines, exalts, enriches, and protects their understanding concerning each one of the other synonymous terms for God, and glorifies the eternal, unchangeable perfection of His nature, His omnipotence and omnipresence. Indeed, the understanding of God as divine Principle is needed to realize the full significance of the other synonyms.

Take the terms Mind, Life, Truth, Love. How could any of these terms be conceived of as truly depicting the nature of God if they could be divorced from Principle? God, the Bible tells us, is "of purer eyes than to behold evil," but a mind conscious of, knowing, good and evil, would include and stand for erring thought divested of Principle. Life conscious of death would mean mortal life, not the immortal being which is Principle. Truth, apart from Principle, would signify a human sense of truth, and would be mutable, instead of the immutable Principle, God. Love that is variable is not changeless divine Love, which is Principle.

"Principle is absolute," writes Mrs. Eddy (Science and Health, p. 283). Principle, as our Leader points out in her writings, includes all the other synonyms for God. Nothing has stability which is not founded on Principle; therefore, until God is understood as Principle, and Principle as God, neither God nor man can be spiritually understood, nor the Science of being demonstrated.

In the Apocalypse, the spiritual idea, which alone was found worthy to open the sealed book, was depicted as "a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth." Could the discernment of the sevenfold nature of God be achieved until the divinity of Principle, the seventh synonym, was revealed, understood, and demonstrated?

In Science and Health (p. 572) Mrs. Eddy writes, "Love fulfils the law of Christian Science, and nothing short of this divine Principle, understood and demonstrated, can ever furnish the vision of the Apocalypse, open the seven seals of error with Truth, or uncover the myriad illusions of sin, sickness, and death." Here, in the words of Isaiah, there is lifted up "a standard for the people."

What a lifting up of thought—what a standard for all meditation concerning the nature of God and man—is to be found in the revelation of Principle as God, and of God as Principle! Is not Principle, therefore, a measuring rod whereby every student of theology must test his thought and understanding?

Encouragement may be found in the prophetic Scripture: "After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord."

A dictionary defines "peace" as follows: "Public quiet, order and contentment in obedience to law;" and true unity can only be demonstrated on the basis of Principle, the source of all law—God. That is the understanding to which the whole world must grow—and this growth is going on. A great something is stirring in human consciousness, awakening it to the necessity of facing up to the bigger things of life, and gaining the correct understanding of the fundamentals of being. The need and the demand for true spiritual leadership are developing and becoming apparent. Men will reject human dictatorship in any form. The evils of dictatorship are being uncovered in human affairs and also in forms of religion, and thus false foundations will be laid bare. Humanity is crying out for spiritual leadership. How is this need going to be met? Not by persons or personalities, not by creeds or dogmas, but through the understanding and demonstration of the Mind of which our great Master, Christ Jesus, was the clearest exponent and embodiment.

The divine Principle of our Lord's mighty words and works becomes apparent in the light by which Christian Science illumines the Scriptures, and thus the purely scientific nature of divine law, which Christ Jesus demonstrated in healing sin and sickness and triumphing over death, is revealed anew to this age.

On page 565 of Science and Health the author writes: "The impersonation of the spiritual idea had a brief history in the earthly life of our Master; but 'of his kingdom there shall be no end,' for Christ, God's idea, will eventually rule all nations and peoples—imperatively, absolutely,finally—with divine Science." She continues, "After the stars sang together and all was primeval harmony, the material lie made war upon the spiritual idea; but this only impelled the idea to rise to the zenith of demonstration, destroying sin, sickness, and death, and to be caught up unto God,—to be found in its divine Principle."