Whatever one does, wherever one is, there is always the opportunity to express God, and that is one's reason for being. Expressing God is doing God's will and brings infinite blessings. The highest service to God is knowing and demonstrating His omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence. The highest service to mankind is seeing one's fellow man as actually God's own image and likeness and following in the footsteps of Jesus in daily living.

In an article entitled "Choose ye" in "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" Mary Baker Eddy writes (p. 3): "The divine might of Truth demands well-doing in order to demonstrate truth, and this not alone in accord with human desire but with spiritual power. St. John writes: 'Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.' The sear leaves of faith without works, scattered abroad in Zion's waste places, appeal to reformers, 'Show me thy faith by thy works.'"

The Mother Church and its branches provide ample opportunity for showing faith by works. The public practice of Christian Science healing and the service of nursing are two such opportunities, and they constitute well-doing, which is in accord with spiritual power. In the seventeenth chapter of Exodus we read that Moses held up his hand while the Israelites were fighting the enemy. As long as he held it high, the children of Israel prevailed. When he became tired and let it fall, the enemy seemed to gain ground. Finally, two of his friends took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat on it. One of his friends stood on one side and one on the other, and they held up his hands until the enemy was completely routed.

In such a manner do practitioner and nurse support the patient until the enemy of disease is completely routed. The nurse primarily does whatever seems necessary in practical ways for the comfort and well-being of the patient, helping to keep thought as much as possible away from contemplation of a material body. The practitioner does the prayerful metaphysical work necessary to dispel the illusion of disease and heal the patient.

There are many other ways of giving service that demonstrate Truth, good deeds that are in accord with spiritual power, and works whereby our faith may be attested. Jesus gave us many perfect examples of selfless service. One incident is recorded in the thirteenth chapter of John's Gospel. John tells us that when their meal was over, Jesus laid aside his garments, girded himself with a towel, and washed his disciples' feet. When he had finished, he asked them if they realized what he had done, and he said (John 13:13–15): "Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you."

To serve God we must know Him as He really is. What is God? On page 465 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mrs. Eddy gives us the answer to this question: "God is incorporeal, divine, supreme, infinite Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love." Mrs. Eddy says of the seven synonymous terms in this definition: "They refer to one absolute God. They are also intended to express the nature, essence, and wholeness of Deity."

Some may accept these synonyms for God, Spirit, but may in certain ways continue to hold to former material concepts of Him. They may think of Love, for instance, as being far off, as they have been accustomed to think of God as far off in a remote place called heaven. We are taught in Christian Science that heaven is not a place, but a divine state of mind; thus Love is brought within the range of our consciousness.

The greatest energizing and liberating force is divine Love; but only to the degree that we are expressing love do we have love in our experience. Without the expression of unselfed love, our service to God would be empty and lifeless. Divine Love must be actively expressed by the individual.

One can do his fellow man no greater service than to see him as he really is: to see him as the manifestation of the one eternal Father-Mother God, as spiritual, entirely devoid of matter and its limitations. Becoming acquainted with the true God we become conscious of the real man. This man, being the expression or manifestation of God, must reflect the nature and essence of God's being.

When we look into the water at the reflection of a willow tree, we do not except to see the reflection of an oak tree or a pine tree. We know that the reflection of a willow tree is the exact likeness of a willow tree. Similarly, when we know that God is Spirit and that man is made in His image and likeness, we see that man is spiritual, not material. Just as there would not be a branch or a leaf of a pine or oak tree in the reflection of a willow tree, so there cannot be an element unlike God in man, the reflection of Spirit. If one sees something foreign to what is good and holy, he should realize that it is no part of the man of God's creating, but is a perversion of His creation. This is the best way to love one's neighbor as oneself. In so doing, one not only benefits his neighbor but also himself.

True intelligence expresses the one Mind. We need to be intelligent when we are confronted with the evidence of the senses in regard to sickness. We can be thankful that we do not have to believe what we see. The knowledge of man as he really is—perfect, whole, and free from the bondage of sickness, sin, and death—will lift the burdened and weary and sick out of the mesmerism of the false sense of life and will restore them to their rightful heritage of harmony, joy, peace, well-being, and health.

Jesus healed instantaneously. When confronted with the testimony of the material senses he saw the real man. Seeing the real man does not mean trying to change a material man into a spiritual one. It means to obliterate completely the false sense that man is material and, from the standpoint of the one Mind, to perceive spiritually the perfection of being.

Holding the perfect model in thought, we shall be doing the good that has some semblance of the divine service that Jesus exemplified. In this work we can serve without fatigue; and we can receive and share the joy and blessings which come from God. In this way the most menial tasks can be transformed into divine service, because we know that every constructive thing we do is serving God.

When we resolve that our daily deeds shall be lifted to this divine service, we shall be learning to express the love of which we read in "Miscellaneous Writings" by Mrs. Eddy (p. 250): "Love cannot be a mere abstraction, or goodness without activity and power. As a human quality, the glorious significance of affection is more than words: it is the tender, unselfish deed done in secret; the silent, ceaseless prayer; the self-forgetful heart that overflows; the veiled form stealing on an errand of mercy, out of a side door; the littlefeet tripping along the sidewalk; the gentle hand opening the door that turns toward want and woe, sickness and sorrow, and thus lighting the dark places of earth."

The Bible says (II Cor. 9:8), "God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work."