The unfolding and inquiring thought of a young child leads it to put many questions to its parents. The word "why" comes frequently to its lips as it seeks to gain information about itself, its home, and its environment. This spirit of inquiry never ceases. Throughout one's entire human experience the word "why" comes often to one's thought in the search for the answer to one's problems or experiences.

When Mary Magdalene found the stone rolled away from the sepulcher in which the body of Jesus had been sealed, she summoned two of Jesus' disciples. They looked into the empty space and found the graveclothes but no evidence of Jesus' body. Then they went away, undoubtedly with the question, "Why?" on their lips. But Mary, as she looked in, saw two angels, who said (John 20:13), "Why weepest thou?" Shortly she turned and saw Jesus standing there, but did not recognize him.

Then Jesus asked her, "Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou?" But Mary did not recognize him until he addressed her by her name, and then her thought was awakened to the fact that it was the beloved Master. In this experience Jesus proved that his material body was actually a mental concept, which at his ascension was replaced by the evidence of his pure spiritual identity.

How often the individual asks a question and looks for the answer to it in the sepulcher, that is, in the wrong direction, in the belief that health, life, success, relationships, exist in matter. Why do I have to suffer in the body? Why am I burdened with business problems? Why is the world in such a turmoil? These questions are on the lips of many. The answers can come and the solutions to human problems can be found only when men turn unreservedly away from the testimony of material sense—with its material science, theology, and medicine—to the enlightening and healing truths of Christian Science.

The Psalmist sang (Ps. 43:5), "Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God."

By making one's life a miserable experience of unanswered "whys" in an attempt to find the origin of evil, sickness, failure, or death, one adds confusion to misery. A more constructive approach to the solution of a problem is to ask, "Why am I well?" or, "Why am I successful?" or, "Why is evil nothing?" and then to look for the answers to these questions in the enlightening and life-giving pages of our Christian Science literature.

When mortal sense claims that there is death, spiritual sense is present to testify that there is life eternal and indestructible. When medical pronouncements indicate disease and hopelessness to be present, there is actually heavenly health and holiness; when personal sense insists that there is failure or lack of opportunity, Truth testifies that success and unlimited opportunity are assured.

Mrs. Eddy writes (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 207): "The spiritual reality is the scientific fact in all things. The spiritual fact, repeated in the action of man and the whole universe, is harmonious and is the ideal of Truth. Spiritual facts are not inverted; the opposite discord, which bears no resemblance to spirituality, is not real." And then our Leader declares that this "opposite discord" is the evidence of the material senses, which can never bear testimony to God and His creation.

In Christian Science we learn that the spiritual fact, or the reverse of a disordered business, home, or body, is not a humanly or materially perfect condition. For example, the spiritual fact or reverse of a diseased person is not a human being with a perfect physical body. It is a pure idea or identity of Spirit. The spiritual fact of a disrupted home or failing business is not a humanly happy family or a materially successful business. It is in each instance a spiritual idea.

To understand the identity of such perfect ideas, the Christian Scientist becomes acquainted with their qualities. The reverse of a sick person is an idea which includes the active qualities of harmony, soundness, beauty, strength, and unchanging perfection. The spiritual idea of business is demonstrated through such qualities as honesty, industry, alertness, cooperation, constructive activity, and harmony.

As the individual is faced with any question regarding so-called material existence, the enlightening power of the Christ is always available to reveal the spiritual fact, which wipes out the false concept in human consciousness and so restores harmony to human experience.

"Why are ye troubled?" asked Jesus of his disciples whom he met on the road to Emmaus, as they mourned for him, believing that he was dead (Luke 24:38). The great truths of existence which Jesus spoke to them awakened their spiritual sense, enabled them to recognize him as their Master, to drop their burdened thinking, and to rise to the joy of experiencing the risen Christ. How important it is not to be cast down by the "why" of material sense, but to face it with assurance that every question has its enlightening and healing answer in the Science of pure Christianity.

Harold Molter