Christian Science brings to human apprehension the demonstrable truth that man, the man of God's creating, is spiritual and is made in God's image and after His likeness. It makes God known to mankind and shows humanity how the spiritual idea of God, the Christ, heals all ills of the flesh.

It is widely recognized today that human experience, including the woes of sickness and sin, is the seeming objectification of human thought. The only way that true healing of sickness and sin can come to individuals or to nations is through a correction of erroneous thought. Christ, Truth, the spiritual idea, alone can truly correct falsities, because Christ has power to destroy error. No wonder that Jesus, the embodiment of Truth, could exclaim (Luke 10:19), "Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you." Truth, as applied in Christian Science, still effectually treads on the serpents and scorpions of sickness and sin and lack.

Proportionably as the Christ-idea, revealing God as all-presence, all-power, all-science, is accepted as true consciousness, it becomes to one a law of correction to every belief which seems to be included in false mortal consciousness. This false sense is comprised merely of a mistaken belief, the seeming absence of spiritual being, which in reality is always omnipotent and omnipresent. However, humanity as a rule not only requires the general truths of God's goodness as Spirit, and man's real being as His image, in order to heal, but also needs to understand and apply specific truths which deny and correct in human thought, and thereby in human body, the specific errors that are manifested as sickness, sin, and so on. This is illustrated by the school child, who, in order to correct mistakes in a faulty solution of a mathematical problem, must know the specific mathematical facts which correct specific errors.

If one endeavored to go from the bottom to the top of a long stairway in one bound, he might never reach the top; but when willing to ascend one step at a time, he finds each step providing the means whereby the next step is attained, and the desired goal is swiftly reached. Our Leader opens the great chapter entitled "Recapitulation" in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," with these words of Isaiah's (28:10): "For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little."

Many statements from Mrs. Eddy's pen help us to know God and through intelligent inference to see how spiritual knowledge lifts mankind step by step to better health, more harmony, and a larger sense of abundance. In the textbook is this statement, filled with great meaning for all of us (p. 93): "In Christian Science, Spirit, as a proper noun, is the name of the Supreme Being. It means quantity and quality, and applies exclusively to God."

Through her published works and her teaching, our beloved Leader has revealed the wholeness and allness of God. While no one article could more than touch upon this vast subject, it is interesting to note something of the unfoldment that has come through the knowledge that Spirit "means quantity and quality," and what this truth signifies to mankind.

As students of Christian Science we gratefully acknowledge every glimpse that it has brought to us of God and His nature, and we apply it to the problems at hand in order that we may daily progress in learning and demonstrating the truth that all men in reality are God's reflections and must therefore be made up of the qualities of God and must ever have the quantity of godliness that fills every demand for good. This truth is always manifested in the experience of the one who accepts it as good morals, abundant health, adquate supply, and usefulness.

The false belief that in human experience one constantly lacks the qualities needed to be Christly, or the quantity of supply and health necessary for one's well-being, has wide acceptance. When Jesus was faced with the hungry multitude on the shore of the Galilean sea there seemed to be a very small amount of supply, five loaves and two fishes. The disciples readily admitted that the loaves and fishes qualified as supply, but they felt that the quantity was so small that it was of no value to them.

The Synoptic Gospels—Matthew, Mark, and Luke—state that Jesus lifted up his eyes to heaven and blessed the food and distributed it to the multitudes. May we not assume that he was conscious of the true nature of God-given supply as being perfect in quality and in quantity? When this spiritual fact comes to human consciousness it corrects the false sense of lack of any good thing and thus is manifested to humanity as an abundance of proper supply. In this instance it was manifested as a sufficient quantity of supply and the right quality of supply to care for more than five thousand.

It is recorded in the history of Elisha that he demonstrated the same truth in a measure, for when the first fruits were brought to him and he ordered them to be set before the multitude his servitor, believing firmly in the inadequency of the amount of food present, said to him (II Kings 4:43), "What, should I set this before an hundred men?" But Elisha, wise enough to know something of the adequacy of the quantity and quality of Spirit as sufficient to meet every human need, made the emphatic statement, "They shall eat, and shall leave thereof." The Biblical account assures us that this was the case.

How often today throughout the world mankind is faced with what seems a stark and grim reality, that the things which humanity considers as having the quality of supply—food, clothing, housing, and so on—seem present in only a limited quantity. With what gratitude we may reverse this false belief through the truth that God expresses all His ideas in a right sense of both quality and quantity. This demonstrable truth is manifested or proved in the human experience of the one who grasps this fact and refuses to allow himself to admit that the quality of goodness found in the quantity of unlimited abundance is ever absent from him.

A young student in college who was paying all his own expenses was faced at the beginning of his school year with the fact that he required a much larger sum than seemed available in order to pay the immediate expenses due. He found himself with about 20 per cent of what was necessary; but he remembered that God's ideas are always expressed in a proper sense of quantity and a proper sense of quality, for they reflect the quantity and quality of Spirit. He knew that the quality of supply was evidenced in what he already had, although that supply seemed insufficient to meet the need at hand. He denied the suggestion that supply could be manifested only in quality, not in quantity, and claimed specifically that man reflects not only the quality of Spirit, substance, but also the quantity. He held firmly to this thought, and in a very few days this truth was demonstrated, and he was able to meet all the obligations and pay all the expenses that were necessary for embarking on the college year.

We can apply this basic truth as a corrective for any false sense of limitation of good which may seem to come up in our daily lives. Must one be loving only part of the time and express this quality of God, who is Love, in a loveliness that meets only part of the demand for loveliness? No. The quality of loveliness is expressed in the proper quantity that meets every demand for it.

Health is a quality of God. Acknowledge its presence in unlimited quantity, and there is no place for sickness. This truth is proved through Christian Science. In "Miscellaneous Writings" Mrs. Eddy says (p. 217), "An effect without a cause is inconceivable; neither philosophy nor reason attempts to find one; but all should conceive and understand that Spirit cannot become less than Spirit; hence that the universe of God is spiritual,—even the ideal world whose cause is the self-created Principle, with which its ideal or phenomenon must correspond in quality and quantity."

We need never sacrifice the quality of good in order to have the God-given quantity of good expressed in daily life. Let us maintain in consciousness this truth as we go about our work in our churches and Sunday Schools. Then we shall demonstrate the law of God, Spirit, regarding both quantity and quality, and we shall see an ever-growing church and Sunday School comprised of beloved workers expressing Christlike thinking and acting.

It is wise never to allow ourselves to believe that our only interest in the membership of The Mother Church and its branches should be in the quality of the membership. The quality of membership is truly important, but so also is the quantity of members. Through her published writings our Leader has provided the means whereby continuous growth in the quality of Christlike thinking is taking place in individual students of Christian Science. Also, through the Manual of The Mother Church she has provided for continuous growth of a world-encircling and world-blessing membership, destined to embrace all mankind.

That this quantity of individuals and this quality of Christliness are already appearing, her God-inspired words assure us. She writes (Science and Health, p. 570): "Millions of unprejudiced minds—simple seekers for Truth, weary wanderers, athirst in the desert—are waiting and watching for rest and drink. Give them a cup of cold water in Christ's name, and never fear the consequences." How helpful it is as we prayerfully prepare for our church services, our Sunday School, our lectures, and for the many other activities of The Mother Church and its branches to remember that there are now and here these millions of unprejudiced minds "waiting and watching for rest and drink," ready and willing to accept the "cup of cold water in Christ's name." The quantity, in terms of millions expressing the qualities of receptivity and humility or teachableness, is present. In the proportion that we mentally claim the truth of God's law of quantity and quality we shall see it manifested in church growth.

Mrs. Eddy's writings present God's revelation of Christian Science to mankind. Today, when materiality and the lusts of the flesh claim to destroy good and bury truth out of human sight, Christian Science comes forward with messages of great hope. It assures the world that goodness is reality, and that these millions of receptive minds are waiting and watching. They cannot be hidden by evil or kept from the cup of cold water that will bring them health and harmony, because students of Christian Science will be faithful in demonstrating the fact that the quantity of goodness and the quality of goodness are expressed in God's creation, and therefore must appear to mankind in a way that meets the human need.