At all times the student of Christian Science should be aware of the infinite nature of God's power and presence. This is especially true at present, when there appears to be such instability in world affairs. It is therefore imperative that we understand and hold to the truth contained in the following statement written by Mary Baker Eddy in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 379): "The real jurisdiction of the world is in Mind, controlling every effect and recognizing all causation as vested in divine Mind."

God is Mind, eternal and infinite good, and both cause and effect are embodied in His allness. Good must be unfolding in a way but dimly understood by humanity, which sees only the material events that are daily taking place. The fact that good is operating at all times was made clear by the Master, Christ Jesus, when he spoke of wars and commotions and the distress of nations and followed with this arresting command (Luke 21:28): "When these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh." The counsel that we look up and lift up our heads is to Christian Scientists a positive warning that here and now we must claim for ourselves the spiritual sense of being and the clear understanding that "the real jurisdiction of the world is in Mind."

We may well ask. "What are all these disturbances to the world's peace and why do we have to endure them if, as has been stated, all control and government belongs to Mind, Principle?" These conditions are described by Mrs. Eddy under the term chemicalization, which is referred to several times in the Christian Science textbook. Chemicalization signifies the resistance of mortal mind to Truth and the mental fermentation which results as divine ideas unfold in all their potency. Our Leader puts it thus (Science and Health, p. 223): "Marvels, calamities, and sin will much more abound as truth urges upon mortals its resisted claims; but the awful daring of sin destroys sin, and foreshadows the triumph of truth. God will overturn, until 'He come whose right it is.'"

Christian Science makes it very clear that there are not two powers warring against each other—good and evil. Such a belief is contrary to the revelation of Truth given us by the Master and by our Leader. There is one Mind, God; one cause, divine Principle; one power and presence, Spirit, infinite good. There is no reality in anything opposed or contrary to the allness of God. From within the confines of its own misconceptions, mythical mortal mind postulates a realm of opposites: good and evil, good health and ill-health, peace and war, riches and poverty, happiness and misery. This is the false and fictitious double mind which the apostle said so definitely is enmity against God, or good.

The disturbances and threats, then, are not taking place in the realm of the real, where God and His idea, man, coexist in the infinite, changeless harmony of Life. Discord exists only in the false state of mortality, the dream sense of mortal mind. The awakening to truth disposes completely of the dream, for the dream and its embodiment of distress, disease, strife, and death are not part of the reality of being.

Now both the divinely inspired Master and our Leader were emphatic that we have a great part to play in world events. A Christian Scientist will not be caught sleeping or sitting supinely by while disastrous episodes of history are working out before his gaze. The Master's command to look up is a charge to become increasing aware that God, divine Principle, is the only power and presence, the only cause and effect. The corollary to this greater awareness of good is the realization that there is no force, power, or law of evil, the opposite of good. Therefore in reality no nation or individual, no thing or place, can embody evil or express it. There is no opportunity for evil to assert itself if we have denied its very existence. Evil is a myth, to which no student of Christian Science should or can subscribe in any way.

He therefore cannot escape the duty which Mrs. Eddy has laid upon all Christian Scientists and which is set forth so plainly on pages 96 and 97 of Science and Health for all to study and apply. A single quotation will here suffice to emphasize the wisdom of these pages: "During this final conflict, wicked minds will endeavor to find means by which to accomplish more evil; but those who discern Christian Science will hold crime in check. They will aid in the ejection of error. They will maintain law and order, and cheerfully await the certainty of ultimate perfection." How will Christian Scientists "hold crime in check"? By refusing to personalize error either nationally or individually. By holding the correct view of God's creation as spiritual, perfect, pure, intact, and immortal. How will they "maintain law and order"? By being positively and actively aware that God is the only lawmaker and that His jurisdiction is absolute.

What then are the "wicked minds" of this quotation? Mortal mind, or the carnal mind, is the alleged opposite of God. Mortal mind claims to be the intellect of mortal man, guiding him to evil and destruction. Christian Scientists know that there is one absolute, infinite Mind. This Mind embodies in its own infinitude the ideas which constitute the universe, including man. To know God as the only Mind is to render powerless any suggestion of minds many. And to dissolve the belief of a human mind is to nullify hate, fear, war, disease, death, and the multifarious illusions of the carnal mind.

No salvation can be experienced except it come through the scientific dissolution of evil as an illusion, and Christian Science alone gives the understanding which accomplishes this. How can any of us "maintain law and order" as long as we are giving allegiance to belief in the reality of lawlessness and disorder. To destroy the foundations of evil, it is necessary to see it for what it is— nothing, no mind, no power, a lie from the beginning, whose nothingness is demonstrated as we know the truth concerning it.

The present times are a challenge to all Christian Scientists to lift their vision to the realm of the one Mind, without qualifications or reservations, and to demonstrate not only that we have control over disease and the individual problems of humanity, but that, as we reflect this one Mind, we become the masters over world conditions and thereby are playing our part in mankind's ultimate salvation.