IT sometimes seems that one's human affairs are a mass of fears and perplexities and uncertainties. Then perhaps a kindly friend comes along and says cheerily, "Well, just don't get discouraged."

"Indeed," says the burdened one, "I don't want to be discouraged, but how can I help it?"

If such a one is a student of Christian Science, he may turn to his textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, and on page 254 he may read, "Individuals are consistent who, watching and praying, can 'run, and not be weary; . . . walk, and not faint,' who gain good rapidly and hold their position, or attain slowly and yield not to discouragement."

Christian Science teaches that all good, not just a portion of it, belongs to the perfect likeness of God, man, whose identity is established in the first chapter of Genesis.

When one acknowledges and expects God's goodness and direction, here and now, he cannot consider defeat, for he must know that the present spiritual perfection of man is the only reality. Then he will be master of the situation, however involved it may seem, for he will understand himself to be the perfect expression of God, the one all-knowing Mind and the only intelligence of man.

"Discouragement," said a great patriot, "is but disenchanted egotism." Indeed, what is discouragement but self-indulgence, indulgence in the false belief of a self apart from God? It may well be that the victim of this unhappy mentality had humanly planned how he wished things to work out and so had temporarily lost sight of true identity. The one Mind, God, includes all identities, and these are happy and harmonious in their interrelationship.

In the universe of Spirit, Mind, there is no fear, no uncertainty, no self-pity—in fact, no self apart from God. Certainly there is no occasion to indulge in pity for one's true self, which is God-ordained and God-sustained. A radical stand, then, must be taken.

The nineteenth chapter of I Kings records that Elijah, hard pressed by many trials and persecutions, sat down under a juniper tree and prayed that he might die. Perhaps in being "very jealous for the Lord God of hosts," Elijah, like some present-day zealots, had forgotten to be humble; and when severely tried, he wished he might lay down this false sense of life.

But an angel, a message from God, "touched him," and he received refreshment. Thus encouraged, Elijah went forward. And at length he was directed to "stand upon the mount before the Lord," where he saw clearly that the truth of being was not to be found in discordant material conditions, but in a still small voice.

A prophet is one who sees spiritually, and today he who would see spiritually has an infallible guide in the inspired Word of the Scriptures, made practical for our everyday needs through the revelation of Christian Science. Through prayer and the consistent study of the Bible and Science and Health, students may learn to have the same assurance with which prophets were wont to assert, "Thus saith the Lord," and the master Christian to state with understood authority, "It is written."

Even a little understanding of the allness of God's government gives the student moral courage to reject error specifically and to take his radical stand for Truth. Christ Jesus showed his followers how to demonstrate man's dominion over all the earth, this dominion being man's God-given heritage. He roused mortal thinking out of the apathetic acceptance of material seeming.

The Master reminded his listeners of the boundless spiritual benefits which are always at hand to be understood, claimed, and utilized. He said (Matt. 7:7, 8), "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: for every one that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened." No excuse for repining, only consistent activity in the right direction.

An earnest student of Christian Science lived in a small town where there seemed to be little opportunity for progress in any way. He prayed diligently, and the answer came in the word of the Master, recorded by Mark (16:15), "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." His human self-hood protested: "But that is no answer. I can't go anywhere or do anything. I'm trapped here."

Again and again he fervently prayed. The response was always the same. Then there came to his awakened thought the words of Mrs. Eddy (Science and Health, p. 559), "The 'still, small voice' of scientific thought reaches over continent and ocean to the globe's remotest bound."

Certainly there was no restriction or limit to the right thinking he could do for the world and for the good of his fellow men. He accepted this direction wholeheartedly, beginning with being consistently grateful for all the good in his own experience and knowing that unlimited good is always at hand everywhere for the spiritually enlightened to behold.

He learned that true gratitude does not look to material things for its inspiration; it is an eternal quality, like purity, integrity, or peace. He saw that all mankind needs encouragement to accept the harmonious truth of being, which belongs to everyone by divine light.

These thoughts inspired such an active change in his thinking that he was really happy, and one day he gratefully wrote an article and submitted it to the Editors of the Christian Science periodicals. It was published, and it followed his systematic right thinking "into all the world." Afterward he progressed into a more active environment.

Gratitude is closely allied to humility, and these two qualities are invaluable aids in our overcoming the false sense of self, which becomes discouraged. In his example of washing the disciples' feet, did not Jesus indicate that any helpful action should be regarded as a gracious service and not a menial task? The unselfed love of true being will find many such opportunities in daily experience. Let not discouragement mesmerize us into idleness and despair!

The consecrated Christian Scientist watches well his thought that it may benefit all with whom he comes in contact. Humility can never be humiliated, and it permits no self-indulgent discouragement. Whatever the seeming, each may rejoice in today's lesson well learned, today's service well rendered, today's vision clarified.

Don't be discouraged!