In summing up his life's observations, a contemporary playwright, well known for his delineation of worldly characters, makes this comment: "Goodness is the only value that seems in this world of appearances to have any claim to be an end in itself."

To have reached such a conclusion is perfectly natural to the student of Christian Science, who early learns that there is but one Mind, and that that Mind is God, changeless good, divine Principle, Love. He learns, too, that this flawless Mind's oneness includes its infinite allness, and thereby excludes all belief in evil as real. Writing on this subject with conviction born of demonstration, our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, asserts in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 470): "Divine Science explains the abstract statement that there is one Mind by the following self-evident proposition: If God, or good, is real, then evil, the unlikeness of God, is unreal. And evil can only seem to be real by giving reality to the unreal."

Reasoning from this standpoint, one readily discerns that good is not intermittent. It is not momentary, transitory, or capricious. On the contrary, good is continuous and uninterrupted. It is God's will in operation. It is Mind's expression of its own perfection. It is Love identifying man's real selfhood.

The Bible voices this identity in unmistakable terms: "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him." Furthermore, it proclaims that "God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good." Is it not clear, then, that man has no choice but to express good, to love good? He has no power to be or to do otherwise, for power belongs wholly to God. If man could, in his essential character be at one with evil for a single moment, he would destroy himself, for evil, being unreal, is self-destructive. But such an alliance cannot occur. Mind is the law of continuity to its own ideas, and as this is understood it is evidenced in human affairs by the ability to cope with evil in whatever guise it may present itself. Expressing good, loving good, becomes therefore a part of one's spiritual consciousness, or being.

Is healing the need that is uppermost? Whatever the human need, God's dictum of "very good" to His creation is the divine provision. Mankind has but to utilize this spiritual fact in order to prove that disease has no mental capacity to disturb, dethrone, or interfere with man's inherent completeness and harmony.

This was confirmed over forty years ago in the experience of a woman, a semi-invalid, in a remote southern town. For many weary years she had sought help from physicians in different sections of the country, only to be told finally that nothing more could be done for her. The medical verdict in each case was that she had but a few months to live. Forlorn and comfortless, more and more she turned to her Bible for guidance and hope.

At that time Christian Science was little known in the South, but God's goodness was and is, an ever-present reality. One day a comparative stranger, who was the only Christian Scientist in that community, came into her home on business. Soon the business was forgotten, and learning about God and His tender love for His children occupied them both. Assured that God's will for her was good, this woman gained not only hope and guidance, but radiant health, and is today busily engaged in helping others to attain their God-given dominion. Goodness was seen to be the only reality, and this change in consciousness was manifested outwardly in a healthy body.

Does the world chaos seem very real? Vehemently refuse to dignify the mesmeric hysteria of the carnal mind by giving it credence. Remember, thou art man. Jesus' name for the carnal mind was "a liar, and the father of it." He gave it instant denial. We must do likewise. Let alone, it assumes inordinate proportions, but a poised, resolute repudiation of its validity and an acknowledgment of God's all-power, all-presence, all-intelligence establish evil's nothingness and man's invulnerability to it.

Every hour brings its demand for each one to accept his responsibility in the present struggle. Let it not be said that one is shirking that responsibility. The world upheaval, considered in its scientific aspect, namely, as error's frantic resistance to Truth's uncovering, need give us no cause for alarm. Rather does the Scientist, recognizing that the conflict is primarily mental, proceed to declare more vigorously and understanding the universal nature of Love's purpose—the inevitable triumph of justice and right, the invincibility of Principle; and, what is of equal importance, he acts as though he believes what he declares. It is urgent that one's effort should be to think through a problem, not merely about it. Talking with God brings a rich blessing.

Such right mental activity, persisted in, enables one to become more stanch in his allegiance to God, more resolute in expressing his true identity, thus illustrating by his life Mrs. Eddy's inspiring words (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 165), "As an active portion of one stupendous whole, goodness identifies man with universal good."