Men are awakening, however slowly, to the fact that there is but one real government, the government of God. Improved systems of human government and broader unification of peoples evidence this awakening. Laws designed to protect the lives and rights of individual citizens give assurance that many nations are drawing nearer the universal control of divine law. Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered the law of God and named it Christian Science, says in "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" (p. 278), "To coincide with God's government is the proper incentive to the action of all nations."

Christian Science does not seek to abolish human governments but to improve them. It reveals the real spiritual universe, the kingdom of heaven, where divine Mind is seen to be one and infinite and forever in control of all that really exists. This kingdom may seem visionary to those who believe the confused material sense of life to be real, but it is not so to those who discern Spirit's allness and place themselves under God's government by obeying His laws.

Spiritually-minded men have perceived God's government in past ages and have individually conformed their lives to the truth of being. They have been just and merciful, have loved righteousness and expressed it; and they have been blessed and protected by their instinctive submission to Deity. This was true of Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Daniel, and others who let themselves be controlled by the silent influence of Spirit.

From this we see that individuals need not wait until the human systems under which they live coincide with God's universal government before they come to enjoy the advantages of divine control. Understanding Spirit's allness and man's relationship to Spirit as its emanation, or expression, they are free to prove God's government of everything in their experience, and this without offense to the human government under which they may seem to be living.

Mrs. Eddy says in Miscellany (p. 222), "Mankind will be God-governed in proportion as God's government becomes apparent, the Golden Rule utilized, and the rights of man and the liberty of conscience held sacred." Christ Jesus made divine government apparent by his own law-governed life. He conformed to the law of his land, but this did not prevent him from proving the supremacy of the will of God. It was his individual obedience to the Father's will which gave him authority to destroy every obstacle of injustice and persecution that beset his progress; and it finally enabled him to rise above the mortal sense of life into the absolute freedom of Spirit where Principle reigns eternally. So certain was he of God's supremacy that he said to boastful Pilate (John 19:11), "Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above." Embodying the elements of liberty—justice, truth, and love—he manifested freedom to express them in all he did.

Because the knowledge of God's ever-present government has ascendancy over the evil beliefs which would hold back its appearing, each Christian Scientist needs to exercise that knowledge to the fullest extent of his ability. His faithful realization of the real order helps the world to awaken from its sordid mortal dream and aids mankind in developing the highest concept of human government possible at present. And it helps curb the tyrannical forces of thought which would selfishly trample on the right of the individual to prove God's higher control of his life. Those who discern divine reality should spend ample periods of time in realizing the omnipotence and omnipresence of Deity and in denying the existence of human will and greed for power, which claim to usurp the control of God.

Mrs. Eddy says in Miscellany (p. 128): "God is everywhere. No crown nor sceptre nor rulers rampant can quench the vital heritage of freedom—man's right to adopt a religion, to employ a physician, to live or to die according to the dictates of his own rational conscience and enlightened understanding." This vital heritage of freedom, while demonstrably true everywhere and under every circumstance, calls for genuine sacrifice of material belief if its advantages are to be experienced. It requires the individual to awaken to the consciousness of Spirit and express the truths which Spirit supports. It demands that he purify himself until he is able to break the hypnotic spell of mortal mind which makes oppression seem real. Not without a price does one come into man's heritage as God's son.

Those modes of government which do approximate God's will in certain measure need the protective prayers of the Christian Scientist. His understanding of the justice and equality and freedom which pervade the divine realm places him in a position of responsibility that he dare not neglect.

Critical times face humanity. The balance between right and wrong concepts of government is delicate in the extreme. Every intelligent thought lends its power to keep the balance on the right side and to help mankind progress in the true direction. Hence the Christian Scientist does not withdraw his interest from national and world struggles for a higher order of human government, but contributes his prayers and other efforts to bring it about. His thoughts blend with those of Paul (Rom. 13:1): "Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God."

Helen Wood Bauman