Attractiveness is a quality of divine Love. Being a quality of God, it is inherent in man, God's reflection, as are all the qualities of God.

"There is but one real attraction, that of Spirit," writes Mary Baker Eddy on page 102 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." God, Spirit, being All, He is the ever-present and only attraction, filling all space, eternally holding His beloved children in perfect harmony; and nothing else exists in His creation. With what joy can we be continually drawn by Love to express Love by being more patient in the home, more compassionate with our friends, and more co-operative with all with whom we come in contact!

Mrs. Eddy says (ibid., p. 536), "If man's spiritual gravitation and attraction to one Father, in whom we 'live, and move, and have our being,' should be lost, and if man should be governed by corporeality instead of divine Principle, by body instead of by Soul, man would be annihilated." This can never happen to man, however, for he is eternally one with his Father-Mother God, ever reflecting Love in spiritual qualities.

Love and its ideas are one. As we know this truth about the one attraction of Spirit, God guides us in right ways in all our human associations and companionships. We know this truth by actively claiming our oneness with our Father-Mother God, by actively reflecting God's qualities, by actively claiming our immunity to false attraction or a false sense of pleasure. When we put God, divine Mind, first in our thinking, error cannot gain entrance into or find room in our happy, Truth-filled consciousness.

How blessed are we today that the truth about God and His good creation, as revealed to our beloved Leader, is given to us in Christian Science! For to live in accord with this teaching is to ensure peace, progress, and safety in our lives. Let us draw deep draughts from this eternal source, call largely on our God, and give generously of our unselfed love to others!

We gain the true sense of friendship by reflecting God's love to all, for as we do so, love is expressed to us. "Love is reflected in love," says our Leader in her interpretation of a line of the Lord's Prayer, on page 17 of Science and Health.

Intellectual brilliancy, human charm and beauty are not necessarily reliable, but no one can long resist the warmth of a simple, unselfish love; and friendship, upon such foundations, will endure. In order to gain the true sense of friendship and to lose the false sense of enmity, we must love. Loving one's neighbor as oneself fulfills the law, enriches life, and excludes loneliness.

A great deal of time and thought is given today to the subject of personal attractiveness. Let us be sure that error does not reverse our understanding of true attraction as we have learned it in Christian Science. Error suggests that in order to be personally attractive or popular, one must drink, smoke, and be what is called broad-minded. Let us examine these spurious claims. If we indulge in cocktails and cigarettes in order to become attractive and popular, to whom are we made so? Is it to those whom we admire and respect and desire to call friends? Could we really want for friends those for whom we must subordinate our ideals in order to attract them? The answers to these questions must be in the negative.

A jolly crowd had gathered on the wharf of a yacht club for the holiday boat races, among them a student of Christian Science. Cigarettes were passed around freely, but the student of Christian Science consistently and pleasantly declined to smoke. Suddenly the commodore of the club said impulsively, "I can't tell you how refreshing it is to me to find a girl who doesn't smoke." In the ensuing silence, the Christian Scientist sent up a little prayer of gratitude to God for Christian Science, which had taught her the right way.

In The Christian Science Journal and the Christian Science Sentinel are testimonies given with deep joy for release, sometimes quickly, sometimes after many hours of struggle, from those self-imposed forms of slavery, smoking and drinking. Is it wise to cultivate habits which may require a great effort to overcome?

It is wise to start each day by studying the Lesson-Sermon in the Christian Science Quarterly, so that our thought may early be turned to God. By so doing, we clarify our thinking and more readily detect any aggressive mental suggestion, under whatever guise or disguise. We must keep our thinking pure and free, for any compromise with mortal mind leads inevitably to its renewed frequency of suggestion.

It has been said that moral laws are unbreakable. We may break ourselves upon them; they remain untouched. We know in Christian Science that we successfully resist evil by seeing its utter unreality. When we do this, as we are taught to do in Science, the belief of attraction in evil will disappear, for by this scientific process of knowing the truth, there is found nothing that is left of a belief in evil either to attract or to be attracted.

Though many may feel that they lack what the world calls beauty, brilliancy, or genius, yet each one can be so animated by Love as he goes daily about his Father's business of expressing friendliness, honesty, joy, and enthusiasm that he will draw to the truth those whom he would know and serve and love.

Domination, aggression, and many other unattractive and unlovely traits may seem to oppose our inalienable right to freedom. Evil is not power, however, and cannot endure, for it is the opposite of Love, the divine All-power. This false form of control cannot succeed, for it lacks the great adhesive power of love. The cold winds of egotism, selfishness, and ruthlessness only serve to drive men to resistance, whereas resistance is quickly laid aside beneath the warm, persuasive sun of mercy, justice, and brotherly love.

Jesus manifested the true attraction of Love. Everywhere he went, the multitudes thronged him. He set forth the secret of spiritual attraction when he said, "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me."

A godly life is a popular commentary on the Bible. Men will believe the Scriptures when we live them.—SELECTED.