The human belief in loss suggests the thought that the Supreme Being, God, has ceased to be. But loss is an illusion of physical sense, because God, Spirit, is the eternal Life of man and is therefore unchanging. "How can the majesty and omnipotence of Spirit be lost?" asks our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 78). All that can ever be lost, and should be, is a false material sense of substance, being, and things; and, conversely, what needs to be found is the man whom God has made.

Health, harmony, affluence, joy, and general well-being are normal manifestations of God. When these appear to be absent, the truth of being, sought and found, will restore them. Every individual may learn in Christian Science the fundamental facts about man's source, God, and the consequent truth concerning himself as God's perfect spiritual idea. This is of far more importance to the individual and to mankind than would be the mere recovery of an article which has been lost or mislaid. How relatively unimportant such a material thing becomes in the presence of the ability to dispense healing and comfort to the sick and sorrowing with the same method which Christ Jesus employed! Christian Science is primarily interested in saving the individual, rather than the material things which he may seek to repossess. Yet the truth of being, entertained, may be expected to reach that type of problem too.

When Jesus visited Jericho, he evidenced a keen interest in Zacchaeus, a tax collector there, who, being a man of small stature, had climbed a sycamore tree to gain a better view of the Master as he passed by. When Jesus saw him and called to him, indicating his wish to abide in his house, the Jews murmured because they considered the tax collector to be a sinner, unworthy of such attention. Jesus evidently rejected that false appraisal of Zacchaeus, saying with Christlike compassion (Luke 19: 9, 10): "This day is salvation come to this house, forsomuch as he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost."

Had Jesus accepted the false sense of the people, he probably would not have chosen Zacchaeus as his prospective host. His understanding of man as the spiritual image of God gave him a firm basis on which to advance in his effort to find and save someone worthy. The Bible does not tell anything about Zacchaeus' subsequent experience, but it does tell us that he responded to Jesus' tender solicitude for him by repenting and making restitution for past mistakes.

Does not this incident emphasize the real object in our search for truth? Surely it is of far greater importance that the sick be healed, the sinning be reformed, and the spiritually lost be found, than that too much attention be given to relatively unimportant matters. Our principal field of labor is where the greatest human need lies. This is the healing of the sick. In "Miscellaneous Writings" Mrs. Eddy gives us the following pointed direction (p. 357): "Let Christian Scientists minister to the sick; the schoolroom is the dernier ressort. Let them seek the lost sheep who, having strayed from the true fold, have lost their great Shepherd and yearn to find living pastures and rest beside still waters."

Generally, to pray for material things instead of for spiritual substance, which heals, is to misunderstand the nature of God, Spirit, and the purpose of righteous prayer. God is not anthropomorphic; that is, He is not a magnified human being, who blesses or curses according to whim. He is the constant, unchanging Divine Being, who knows only Himself and His creation, man. This truth may be brought into human experience by the exchange of a false sense of substance for the true. Throughout her writings our Leader consistently turns thought away from matter and material things to spiritual substance. Her purpose is obviously to awaken in her followers a desire for those things which "eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man," but "which God hath prepared for them that love him" (I Cor. 2:9).

An impressive example of Mrs. Eddy's thoughts along this line is contained in "Miscellaneous Writings" where she says (p. 204): "The baptism of the Holy Ghost is the spirit of Truth cleansing from all sin; giving mortals new motives, new purposes, new affections, all pointing upward. This mental condition settles into strength, freedom, deep-toned faith in God; and a marked loss of faith in evil, in human wisdom, human policy, ways, and means." She adds in the following paragraph, "By purifying human thought, this state of mind permeates with increased harmony all the minutiæ of human affairs." Thus Mrs. Eddy indicates the appropriateness of applying Christian Science to the smallest detail of human affairs.

The dominion over material conditions which might be evidenced in the recovery of a lost article, in the increase of one's finances, or in the satisfactory adjustment of some other adverse circumstance, is entirely within the realm of possibility and reason in Science. Among such instances told in the Bible is the story of the recovery by Elisha of the workman's borrowed ax head, which had fallen into the water (II Kings 6:5, 6).

Also, our authorized periodicals occasionally carry a testimony in which the recovery of a lost article through the application of Christian Science is related. Such occurrences, however, need to be recognized as being only of relative importance in comparison with the regenerative work which saves men from destruction. To think or say too much about them may unwittingly impart a false sense of the purpose of this Science. Strength is added to this viewpoint by the fact that in the Manual of The Mother Church, Mrs. Eddy particularly emphasizes the importance of testimonies of physical healing.

Christian Science is not psychic in its ministry, but it is compassionate. Harmony in human affairs is realized through righteous prayer rather than through any feat of legerdemain.

Therefore the great human need is for more spiritual understanding. He who finds it can prove not only for himself but also for others the validity of Christ Jesus' promise in its application to the overcoming of all phases of human discord (Matt. 16:19), "I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."

Mankind sustained a great loss when the talent of spiritual healing was lost to the early Christian church about three centuries after Jesus' ministry; but this loss was repaired when, in 1866, Mrs. Eddy discovered the Science which reinstated it. She found and proved, as did Christ Jesus, that all real power to heal resides in the divine Mind, Spirit, rather than in material theories regarding disease, in material medicine, or in surgery. Because of this restoration the individual may find and utilize that which was lost.