Occasionally one hears a beginner in Christian Science say, "I can understand God as Life, but it is difficult for me to conceive of Him as Principle." Or another may say, "It is plain to me that God is Mind, but with all the evil that there seems to be in the world, I cannot see that He is also Love."

God is defined by Mary Baker Eddy on page 587 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" as, "The great I am; the all-knowing, all-seeing, all-acting, all-wise, all-loving, and eternal; Principle; Mind; Soul; Spirit; Life; Truth; Love; all substance; intelligence." God so defined is all-inclusive, complete. Of the seven synonyms for God, and their correlative attributes, none stands alone.

A geometric theorem capable of proof is that "the whole is equal to the sum of all its parts." It is likewise demonstrable that "things equal to the same thing are equal to each other." To prove these facts, however, the student of mathematics must understand the fundamentals of geometry. The mathematical fact is not altered because of an imperfect application of its truth.

If God is Life and God is Principle, it follows that Life is Principle. When one sees clearly that God is Life one is cognizant of Principle and can demonstrate the various attributes of Principle in the daily demands made upon him. So too if God is recognized as Mind, but is not seen to be manifested as Love, this shows an imperfect knowledge of the operation of Mind as Love. Mind functioning as intelligence is God acting as Love. And God acting as Love is the all-pervading consciousness of Soul, the great I AM. All the synonyms for God, constituting completeness, partake of the same nature and of the nature of one another.

Thus if an error to be overcome is a lack of love, or if there is a need for more intelligence, or if a grossly materialistic viewpoint demands correction, the application of what is understood of the basic truth of Christian Science will bring into the experience of the one to be healed an awareness of love, a mental alertness, and a spirituality never before unfolded to his human sense.

A number of years ago a Christian Scientist found herself among strangers, several hundred miles from her home, in a situation of complete penury. She had paid a week's room rent in advance; she had her Bible and Science and Health; and that seemed to be the sum of her recognizable assets. Without telling anyone of her great need, she turned to the Preface to Science and Health. Thoughtfully she pondered the meaning of the first sentence in the book and let go a little of the fear. For three days she read the book constantly, knowing that this was the testing time for her faith in the power of its Christly message to heal.

The first realization was that God is Life, and that she, as God's child, made in His image and likeness, was sustained, even though food was not immediately available. At the end of three days she was able to render an unusual service to the manager of the rooming house, and board and room for a week were provided her in exchange for the service.

The second realization was that God, Spirit, is the only real substance, and that her substance, or supply, was not dependent upon money. During the period she gratefully served in this home another roomer approached the Christian Scientist and insisted upon purchasing a certain item which he greatly desired, and which the student had not realized had a marketable value. The sum involved was sufficient to pay the railroad fare to the young woman's home city.

The third realization was that Mind is infinite in its manifestations and instantaneous in its effectiveness. A case healed in Christian Science by the application of its spiritual truth necessarily awakens the patient to an enlarged mental activity in all the departments of his daily life, and he begins to know God as Mind and, by reflection, as his Mind. We read in Psalms (50:18), "When thou sawest a thief, then thou consentedst with him." A Christian Scientist must not consent to hate, to sin, disease, poverty, or death, and thereby partake of these errors. When the student discovered that she had been consenting to the beliefs of unemployment and lack she reversed her thinking and obtained a position within a day after arriving home, in a field not previously considered within her capacity to perform.

Clinging to the truth embodied in the statement (Science and Health, p. 209), "Spiritual sense is a conscious, constant capacity to understand God," enabled her to heal the threat of blindness which came at this time to disconcert her in the effort to demonstrate the allness of God. An overwhelming sense of love and gratitude for each proof of Christian Science during the many months of this continuing unfoldment deepened her understanding and perception of God as being all-inclusive, omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent.

The fourth realization was an awareness of Love. When we see our brother in Science reflecting God's qualities, then we are conscious of Love. To love is to recognize loveliness, whether it be in thought, or sight, or sound. To love is to respond to another's expression of gratitude, or gentleness, or compassion, even though that expression be a timid or an unaccustomed one. To love is to be mentally alert to another's human or spiritual needs. It is to know and to feel loving-kindness within oneself toward one's fellows and to cast out any sense of grievance, resentment, or hate, however nebulous.

To know Love as Principle is to unsee hate and all its various subtle formulae; to know that hate is not a faculty of Mind; to deny hate's claim to existence and affirm the omnipotence of the Love which heals. Mrs. Eddy says on page 361 of Science and Health: "'I and my Father are one,'—that is, one in quality, not in quantity. As a drop of water is one with the ocean, a ray of light one with the sun, even so God and man, Father and son, are one in being." St. Paul with beautiful simplicity indicates God's completeness in his letter to the Romans where he says (11:36), "For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things."

When one accepts and uses all the varied Christian Science appellations for Deity and acknowledges God's infinitely varied manifestations, one gains an enlarged spiritual sense and his human needs are abundantly met. A Christian Science healing results when one learns to love more in all the ways inherent in the one divine Mind, and thought necessarily turns from the consideration of the material to communion with God. In this way the spiritual fact of man's oneness, or unity, with God is seen to be oneness with all-inclusiveness.