Christian Science teaches that the real man exists now at the standpoint of perfection, and from that vantage point he sees all things as they actually exist. We need to gain this true vision. Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 316), "The real man being linked by Science to his Maker, mortals need only turn from sin and lose sight of mortal selfhood to find Christ, the real man and his relation to God, and to recognize the divine sonship," This turning from sin and losing sight of mortal selfhood is a most important step in progress.

When a shepherd wishes to save a sheep that has fallen into a rock crevice or a pit he uses the crook of his staff to lift the animal. However, he cannot slip the crook under the sheep to lift it until the animal stops struggling. Therein lies a lesson. As long as one struggles with a problem, believing in its reality, he finds that he is not lifted out of it. The solution to the problem is never found within the problem itself. We need to realize that Truth discloses and unfolds itself. With scientific certainty it disposes of error without contending with it. The very nature of Truth precludes the existence of error.

Mrs. Eddy writes (ibid., p. 263). "When mortal man blends his thoughts of existence with the spiritual and works only as God works, he will no longer grope in the dark and cling to earth because he has not tasted heaven." To work as God works one must first accept and understand Jesus' statement John 5:19), "The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise." To look at things from the standpoint of the senses and to see matter or a sick, sinful mortal as real is obviously contrary to the true vision. God, who is Spirit, sees only spirituality.

One may ask himself, "What does Mind know or what does Mind see?" Mind, one of the seven synonyms for God, knows all good and sees only good. Truth cannot be aware of error any more than light can include darkness. Nor can the beauty and harmony of Soul include anything ugly or inharmonious. This must be the basis of all Christian Science treatment. Man does not work up to perfection; he looks out from perfection. Since God's universe is perfect and harmonious, anything that appears contrary to that harmony and perfection must be outside of reality, and therefore is illusion. It is without cause or law, power or substance, and hence without place or presence. The necessity, then, is to drop the concept of oneself as living in a mortal body or as controlled by material law.

Working in this way proved a great blessing to a mother and daughter who were war prisoners. After two years in the prison camp, the food became less digestible and nerves were taut. The daughter, who was conducting the camp kindergarten and helping in the children's hospital, had been having severe attacks of indigestion and fainting spells. One night she touched her mother and said, "Tell me all the truth you know." The mother realized that her daughter was very weak, in fact she felt that the young woman might be passing on. The daughter said that she feared this too.

The mother sat up in bed and taking the girl in her arms began to tell her over and over what she knew of the wonderful truth of God's presence. On through the night she whispered—whispered because she did not wish to awaken the forty-five internees living with them in the same room. By morning the daughter said, "Now, Mother, I think I can lie down," and both mother and daughter knew that the truth had made them free. The mother says that as she looks back on the experience she realizes now how little she thought of symptoms or material conditions. She said, in speaking of this healing, "I only knew our oneness, our unity, with God, and we were made free."

When they were released the mother helped to care for the wounded. She said that she was glad she could stand firm in the knowledge that only God was present in spite of appearances before her.

She looks upon the whole experience of internment with joy and gratitude, rather than with a sense of affliction, because of the many ways in which God's presence and power were manifested.

All of us must work vigorously to maintain what we know to be true freedom, the freedom of Spirit. Isaiah says (59:19), "When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him." Does it not behoove all who know this "Spirit of the Lord" to lift the standard high and hold it firm? Shall we not actively work to build the bulwark against the enemy?

Edmund Burke wrote, "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." Unless those of us who know the power of right thinking and acting work zealously for what we know to be necessary to save ourselves and the world, the thieves of apathy and indifference could well rob us of what we hold most dear. There may seem to be opposition to Christ from without, but the apathy and indifference of those who call themselves Christians is also a menace.

The Church of Christ, Scientist, is a tremendous force for good in the world today. Let us work diligently in whatever assignment or opportunity is ours in the full knowledge that our contribution, no matter how small or insignificant it may seem, adds that much more on the side of Christ. Thus, step by step, we overcome the forces that would crucify anew the spirit of Truth. Triumph in Christ is won by self-forgetful love. The reward is always there when the motive is to manifest good to all. The willingness to work, as well as the working, reflects God.

When we are alerted to evil, we then have the opportunity to think and act in the way that will bring it to nought. The individual who is passively tolerant toward an injustice is as guilty as those who work to bring about an injustice. The times we are living in require active and energetic allegiance to the Cause of Christian Science. A passive acceptance of the truth is not enough. We need to oppose error diligently with our understanding of the true facts of being and to work actively for the Church of Christ, Scientist. Most of all we need to be standard-bearers for the cause of Christ wherever we are. We need so to live that it will be apparent to those with whom we come in contact that we are motivated by a spiritual power beyond the merely human.

Living one's life according to Principle, expressing the qualities of God, is the best defense against evil. Standing with Principle and maintaining the highest motives in all of our dealings with our fellow men and seeing each one as God sees him is working as God works.