A Christian Scientist had for some days been contending with an annoying cold. Although throughout the week he had earnestly striven to see its unreality, the condition had not yielded. Sunday evening found him in church, intently listening to the words of truth from the Bible and from "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy.

As the final section of the Lesson-Sermon from the Christian Science Quarterly was being read, the healing message came, clear and potent, in these words (Science and Health, p. 120): "Therefore the divine Principle of Science, reversing the testimony of the physical senses, reveals man as harmoniously existent in Truth, which is the only basis of health." The veil was lifted! The glorious fact of man's present perfection as the spiritual child of God, expressing health and freedom, was seen and gladly accepted, and the healing was immediately evidenced.

Material belief can never discern or grasp the spiritual truths relating to God and His idea, man, who is never bounded by or in bondage to a material body. "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned," says the Apostle Paul (I Cor. 2:14). Mortal mind is ever outside the realm of divine reality, ever blindly arguing with and claiming to present its own false concepts: discord, distrust, intolerance, impatience, and fear.

The obtuseness of mortal mind, its inability to perceive spiritual good, its hardness of heart, exclude it from the universal harmony of God, divine Love, who tenderly cherishes and provides for all His creation. St. Paul refers to this opacity of the carnal mind as "the vail ... upon their heart." But the apostle also envisioned the prophet's grand promise contained in the twenty-fifth chapter of Isaiah, and he reaffirmed that when thought rises to the apprehension of Christ, Truth, then indeed "the veil shall be taken away" (II Cor. 3:16).

What is the veil, the removal of which discloses man's heritage of freedom, health, and dominion? Is it not the lie that there is a veil or screen of materiality between God and man? "Believing a lie veils the truth from our vision," says Mrs. Eddy on page 62 of "Miscellaneous Writings." And how is the veil to be removed? The sincere adherent of Truth finds a satisfying answer in Christian Science.

The schoolboy no longer believes the error that three and three are seven when once he has learned the truth that three and three are six. Similarly, one stops believing the errors of mortal mind—discord, sin, disease, and death—as he joyously acknowledges, accepts, and strives to demonstrate the spiritual fact of the harmonious and indestructible relationship between God, divine Principle, and His perfect manifestation, man and the universe. And each successive proof of this relationship in individual human experience progressively lifts the veil.

Man is God's son, His inseparable, spiritual, and eternal idea. This idea can never indulge in or be controlled by any form of materiality, but dwells forever serene and safe in divine Love. Encouraging are our revered Leader's words found on page 513 of Science and Health: "Advancing spiritual steps in the teeming universe of Mind lead on to spiritual spheres and exalted beings. To material sense, this divine universe is dim and distant, gray in the sombre hues of twilight; but anon the veil is lifted, and the scene shifts into light."

Dark, devious, but impotent, are the ways of material sense, which would tend to obscure our perception of good through apathy, discouragement, pride, condemnation, or jealousy. The alert Christian Scientist realizes that these negative qualities have neither entity nor power to shroud his spiritual clear-sightedness. Likewise he knows that error of any sort cannot hinder or abate the profitable exercise of Godlike qualities in am legitimate enterprise.

He does not allow his thought to become clouded with evil's wily innuendoes of another's incompetence, ill-health, or dishonesty; rather does he recognize and love the real selfhood of his brother man as the reflection of Truth, Life, and Love. He knows that man's wholeness has never been veiled from God by any imputation of loneliness, infidelity, or deprivation, and that there is no power or condition able to distort, deflect, or to interpose itself between God, the Allpower, and His beloved child.

A subtle and pernicious belief is that passage of time will relieve or remove a burden or care, or that perhaps we are denied access to a legitimate happiness till some later time. Has one a feeling that some day he will be freed from the apprehension of danger or loss? No future time will find him freer than he is now in God's sight. Whatever is to be true, is true now; and all good is now for God, the one cause, is eternally omnipresent. A verse of one of our hymns reads:

Christ Jesus constantly lifted from human eyes the veil of sorrow, sickness, and sin. He revealed in a practical way the holiness, vigor, and purity of God's man. His consistent spiritualized thought was based on his understanding of the Christ as the true idea of God and man. Jesus was ever active in teaching and demonstrating that man has neither substance nor intelligence separate from Spirit, divine Mind.

Lovingly the Way-shower trod the path of full salvation, proving the irrefragable unity of God and man, even to the overcoming of the lie of death. His healing works evidenced the truth that man is at one with the heavenly Father. He proved that the real selfhood, therefore of you and of me abides now and forever in the realm of God's kingdom, eternal harmony.

Is it not for each one of us to emulate Jesus' glorious example? As we press on courageously in the Master's way we can know of a surety that with each victory over error "the veil is lifted, and the scene shifts into light." And the glory and beauty of this radiant light, healing, purifying, regenerating, never fades.