We love people for the good qualities they express. What are these qualities that we love? They are God's qualities, of course, which man reflects as God's image. They are joy, wisdom, love, purity, justice, understanding, and all the attributes that express the nature of our omnipotent and all-loving Father-Mother. In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mary Baker Eddy brings out the fact that man fully represents God. And her definition of man in the Glossary of this precious textbook reads in part (p. 591), "The full representation of Mind." She also says, on page 475, that man is "that which has not a single quality underived from Deity."

Each day the Christian Scientist who is really living the truths which Christian Science teaches becomes more and more aware of the ever-presence of the measureless good and the unlimited power which belong to man as God's manifestation. The expression of Godlike qualities brings to light the fact that health depends on God, Spirit, not on matter. Health must be seen as a spiritual quality, not as a material condition. In Christian Science we do not attempt to heal matter, for we learn to see matter for what it is—merely a false sense of things, a false state of consciousness. And this mortal consciousness itself must also be seen as an illusion, for Mind, God, is the divine and only consciousness. Man reflects this consciousness because man is the likeness of the one God, the only Mind.

Negative or false qualities, such as fear, hate, selfishness, seem to create discordant conditions, but these errors are only mistaken concepts. They are not realities. They certainly do not belong to man, God's reflection, any more than they belong to God. We must deny them power. Evil is not power and cannot create any conditions for us when we realize that power belongs to God, not to error. God alone makes all the conditions that are required for our well-being.

Man expresses intelligence which cannot be manipulated, for it is unerring and infinite. God is everywhere, and God is Love. So there is no place where intelligence and loveliness are not expressed. We read in Isaiah (43:12), "Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, that I am God." Man is the witness that God is good. As we identify ourselves with God's goodness, we have healings and blessings.

Mrs. Eddy, in the Truth-filled and Love-inspired pages of her writings, explains how Christ Jesus accomplished his wonderful cures. In "Miscellaneous Writings" she says (p. 199): "We learn somewhat of the qualities of the divine Mind through the human Jesus. The power of his transcendent goodness is manifest in the control it gave him over the qualities opposed to Spirit which mortals name matter." Here she plainly tells us that what needs to be controlled is not matter or material conditions, but the qualities opposed to Spirit, which seem to be matter. In God's allness there is nothing really opposed to Him; so we need to see these false qualities as delusions of material sense, beliefs that there is something besides God.

Jesus knew that God is man's Life and that man expresses the Life-giving qualities of God, good, not the qualities of fear and sin. How wonderful it is to know that nothing can ever hinder us from expressing health and true manhood, no matter what the arguments mortal mind may present.

Once a student of Christian Science felt that she was greatly restricted in her work, her living quarters, and her contacts and church work. Also she was manifesting a physical ailment that had not yet yielded to work in Christian Science. On searching her thought she found that she was not expressing the joy and gratitude which a child of God should express and which belonged to her as God's image. She began making an earnest endeavor to express God, good, to the fullness of her understanding of Him.

She studied the synonyms for God set forth in Mrs. Eddy's writings, and she thought of the attributes which express each synonym, such as the discernment of Mind, the joy of Spirit, the perfection of Principle, and the purity of Soul. She endeavored to express these qualities in daily living and thanked God for His goodness. She began really to feel happier than she had felt for years.

This constant attitude of gratitude made her more thoughtful of others. Happiness became more habitual to her. Before long she moved to larger quarters; in fact, a much fuller sense of home opened up for her and an entirely new and richer experience. Her work unfolded in new ways, and her church activities broadened. The physical difficulty disappeared, and her health was established. Truly the expression of God's qualities, such as gratitude, love, wisdom, brings to full bloom the rich graces of man as God's child, His heir. We need not plead with God for blessings. We need to become aware of the vastness and the fullness of our heritage of infinite good, which He pours out upon all.

Daily, hourly, God freely gives us the strength and power to do all that we need to do. It is the things we do not need to do, such as fearing, resenting, fretting, that bring disease, weariness, and discord into our experience. We must discard the tatters of error and reclothe thought with the blessed qualities which already belong to us as "joint-heirs with Christ" (Rom. 8:17). We apprehend more of good as we faithfully put into practice what we already know. As we learn more and more of God and man through our study of Christian Science, we become aware that God's qualities are inherent in the real man, and we lay hold upon and claim them by constantly practicing them.

Who would want qualities that bring error upon him? Who would think of accepting husks when the real essence of good is right at hand, awaiting his appropriation? Let us replace unnecessary suffering and self-imposed grieving with joyous progress. We alone choose the path. All along the right path we have our charts—sufficient for every need—in our precious books. These charts reveal to us how Jesus, the Way-shower, opened the path, and how our Leader guides us in this right way.

"Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me" (Rev. 3:20). As the Christian Scientist admits and demonstrates the Christ, Truth, in his life, the true qualities of God are no longer strangers to him, but they are his ever-present and godly companions. We increasingly recognize ourselves as God's image through seeing our neighbor as in reality God's likeness also, expressing all the qualities of the Father-Mother. This is truly to love him as our brother, and it is this love for one another that identifies us with God as children of divine Love.