A Parable beloved of Christian Scientists is the Master's story of the good Samaritan (Luke 10). In graphic phrase this parable illustrates the spirit of ministry prompted by the saving Christ. It shows the needy one bereft by the roadside, the self-righteous religionist and the preoccupied ecclesiastic passing by on the other side, and then the sincere, generous wayfarer going to help the one in trouble. He "came where he was," the Gospel says.

It is in just such terms of reaching out to meet the human need that Mary Baker Eddy defines the Christ on page 332 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." She states, "Christ is the true idea voicing good, the divine message from God to men speaking to the human consciousness." One who accepts this definition constantly strives to manifest the practical potentialities of the divine nature, to manifest the healing attributes of Godlikeness, which reveal man as the son of God. To express this true neighborliness. Christian Science emphasizes is the best means of advancing in one's own demonstration of spiritual dominion.

Every student of Christian Science prizes the privilege he has of reading and sharing with others the Christian Science periodicals. These publications, because of their enlightening content and their availability, are designed to fulfill the Christly mission typified by the good Samaritan. They can go where the need is. They can supply, in terms universally appreciable, the inspiration and encouragement which the seeker after Christian Science needs. They assist the inquirer and the student in their quest for that spiritual understanding which may always be gained from unbiased, prayerful study of the Bible and of Mrs. Eddy's works.

Obviously it is desirable that the Christian Science periodicals have wide circulation, that they "go ... into all the world" (Mark 16:15). In 1883, when founding The Christian Science Journal, Mrs. Eddy observed (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 4), "Further enlightenment is necessary for the age, and a periodical devoted to this work seems alone adequate to meet the requirement." Referring to fears disseminated by the popular press, she added (p. 7), "A periodical of our own will counteract to some extent this public nuisance; for through our paper, at the price at which we shall issue it, we shall be able to reach many homes with healing, purifying thought."

What can all Christian Scientists do to make the circulation of their beloved periodicals even more effective? In Christian Science the answer to such a question involves the recognition that because God, divine Love, is infinite Mind, real existence must be divinely mental in all its aspects. In this recognition, real circulation must appear as a spiritual activity, having its source in God and its character consistent with the universal activity of Love.

The corporeal senses, of course, depict circulation in quite a different fashion. They represent it as pertaining to the flow of blood in physical bodies and to the more or less limited distribution of printed matter, as, for example, a newspaper's circulation. But Christian Science exposes mortal mind and all its conceptions as erroneous. It counters its false sense of circulation, for instance, with the demonstrable fact that good, the only vital substance and Life, is never organic but infinite, never distributed or withheld but ever present.

Such truths as these have many times been proved efficacious in the healing of abnormal action in the form of disease. They can also be applied to improve the circulation of such invaluable human auxiliaries to spiritual teaching as the Christian Science periodicals. And the application of these facts in this way contributes its blessing not to the mission of the periodicals alone, but to all constructive human enterprises.

Improvement results naturally as absolute truths are allowed to replace limited beliefs in human consciousness. For example, the real substance of the Christian Science periodicals is not the paper they are printed on, the ink used in printing, or the personal effort expended by the writers. It is, instead, the underlying spiritual content, Truth's ideas. These ideas are governed by and responsive to the law of God alone, the law of universal Love, and the more clearly this reality is seen, the more certainly the evidence of its universality appears.

Experience shows that as Christian Scientists begin to discern the existence and operation of the law of universal Love providing for every human need, the better and wider is the work of healing and enlightenment accomplished by their periodicals. And as a normal outcome of such discernment, Christian Scientists are shown effective ways of making their periodicals more available. They are also impelled to read the periodicals with quickened interest and to share them with others as a Christian service. They are inspired to find the specific blessings which the periodicals offer every reader, the helps for better, loftier living that are to be found in every issue.

The alert student, aroused to use and to share the Christian Science periodicals because he is aware of the specific blessings they bring, protects his use and his sharing by striving to realize pertinent truths. For instance, by knowing the omnipresence of Truth and the spiritual fact that Truth is uninterruptedly imparting true thoughts to its ideas, he confutes the claim that time or space can keep the periodicals from reaching readers when due. By knowing the supremacy and all-inclusiveness of Truth, in which all its ideas are forever at one with its purpose, he handles the indifference and opposition to the periodicals' healing purpose fostered suggestively by ecclesiasticism, atheism, organized medicine, occultism, and other materialistic systems. By perceiving with increasing clarity Truth's continuous and infinite unfoldment he silences the argument that seasonal factors, such as the distractions and counterattractions incident to holidays, can hinder the mission of the periodicals by affecting their circulation adversely.

Today mankind stands in great need of learning that the Bible and Science and Health hold guard over and reveal truths of everlasting significance with regard to health, opportunity, government, peace, joy, and the kingdom of heaven to every individual. In this situation the Journal, Quarterly, Sentinel, Herald, and The Christian Science Monitor have a sacred opportunity. For as the good Samaritan found the man left robbed and wounded and brought him to the inn, so may each and all of the Christian Science periodicals reach student and stranger where they are and tenderly turn them to the full assurance of faith found in the Scriptures and our Leader's books. In such ways is proof established that Love is universal, and that the real manhood of everyone manifests eternal responsiveness to universal Love.