EVIL may claim to resist successfully the letter of Truth, but it cannot resist its spirit. Hence it is the spirit of Truth that Christians most need to develop. Isaiah prophesied of the Messiah (11:2), "The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord." And he who came in fulfillment of that prophecy said (John 4:23), "The true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth."

So filled with the spirit of Truth was Christ Jesus that the false, mortal consciousness, which holds within itself every expression of carnality, fled at his mental touch. The Master rebuked the Pharisees of his day for putting more emphasis upon the letter of the law than upon the spirit of it. And Christian Scientists need to guard against placing more trust in the letter of Science than in the spirit, which is its very essence.

When Mary Baker Eddy discovered Christian Science, the law of God, which Christ Jesus had demonstrated with such great power, she saw that the spirit of Truth must accompany the statement of spiritual law if that same healing power is to be exercised. In founding the Christian Science movement, she gave expression to the mercy and love and justice that dominated her affection for mankind. She expected Christian Scientists not only to state the argument of Science correctly but to express the tenderness of the Christ, Truth, the Comforter, which the Master promised would come.

Mrs. Eddy says in "Retrospection and Introspection" (p. 81): "The letter of the law of God, separated from its spirit, tends to demoralize mortals, and must be corrected by a diviner sense of liberty and light. The spirit of Truth extinguishes false thinking, feeling, and acting; and falsity must thus decay, ere spiritual sense, affectional consciousness, and genuine goodness become so apparent as to be well understood."

We know when we are living the spirit of Truth by the love we feel for all people and by the power we manifest in the solving of human problems. The arguments we need in the application of Christian Science come easily when our chief endeavor is to express the spirit of Truth with its compassionate concern to comfort others.

In applying Christian Science, we should remember that it was when "the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters" (Gen. 1:2) that the light of revelation appeared. Then followed understanding, which separates the real from the unreal and leads on to a greater spiritualization of thought and a clearer unfoldment of the unerring substance—the divine activity—of God's creation.

The love which defines the spirit of Truth is not emotionalism, for emotionalism is the offshoot of material sensation. Those who attempt to heal through a personal and emotional sympathy for people are likely to be emotionally annoyed on other occasions. But the spirit of Truth, being the essence of the Science which is divine, is steadfast and serene. Because it manifests true law, this spirit of God is a constant power expressed in man, God's spiritual likeness. Emotionalism loses Science. But Science silences emotionalism. And through spiritual, impartial love the man who is inseparable from God is brought to light.

Often it is the little things that indicate the Christ-spirit which the student of Science is living. Genuine courtesy with his family, promptness in meeting his obligations, appreciation of the faithful efforts of others to be helpful—such characteristics embody the power which overcomes the hard and unprincipled claims of mortal mind and its so-called laws.

James said (2: 10), "Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all." In other words, he does not understand the divine Principle involved or its undeviating demands. Failure to express Principle, God, in the little things shows a lack of moral refinement and a misunderstanding of the vast, all-embracing law of divine Love. If we are unprincipled in small ways, we need not be surprised if we do not demonstrate the greater energies of divine Principle needed in the healing of disease and lack, sin and death.

Mrs. Eddy says in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 119), "Insubordination to the law of Love even in the least, or strict obedience thereto, tests and discriminates between the real and the unreal Scientist." Christian Science impels a willingness to be a consistent student; it inspires an urgent desire to demonstrate the spirit of Truth, which is the heritage of the real man. Being obedient "in the least" in our worship of God—and worship is a simple matter of obedience—we receive the greater measure of the spirit of Truth, which proves the nothingness of everything that is false and unlike God's creation.

Jesus once said to some of his disciples when they were tempted to lose the spirit of Christianity (Luke 9:55), "Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of." It is well to recall this rebuke if we lose sight of the scientific sense of life and to remember that the spirit of Truth must be a flame, ever leaping in our hearts. Mrs. Eddy says (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 130), "The spirit of Truth is the lever which elevates mankind."

Helen Wood Bauman