Speaker: At first our guest and her family felt they had no real purpose or direction in their lives. There had been much inharmony and illness. But all this changed when a new understanding of God brought a fresh purpose to their home. Mrs. Polly Roberts, of Bronxville, New York, has kindly agreed to tell us about the whole experience.

Mrs. Roberts: After our marriage, our social life consisted mostly of parties devoted to gossiping and drinking. I knew that such a way of life leads to instability and a general relaxing of orderly living, and I did not want such a way of life for my children. But I didn't have the courage or understanding to know what to do about it.

I was beset by other problems. Our two children were frequently ill, and I was tense and fearful concerning their welfare. I longed to be a good mother, but didn't know how. Housework seemed tedious and never-ending—nothing but drudgery. And as a result of this whole situation, I felt mentally stagnant. I prayed for wisdom in the only way I knew, and it's wonderful to me how completely my prayers were answered.

Shortly after we moved to Bronxville in 1948, a friend took me to a Christian Science lecture, and I was greatly impressed by what I heard there. I'd been searching for a religion that would answer my needs; so I started reading "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy.

I began to get a new understanding of God. I how encouraged I felt when I read Mrs. Eddy's words (pp. 12, 13), "In divine Science, where prayers are mental, all may avail themselves of God as 'a very present help in trouble.'" And Then, speaking of God as Love, she says, "Love is impartial and universal in its and adaptions and bestowals."

These thoughts helped me a lot, and I saw I could really learn to understand God, divine Spirit, and rely on His power. I gained a sense of God as our tender Father Mother, whose love for His children is uninterrupted and constant. Also I began to understand something of man's real existence, his uninterrupted health, wholeness, and harmony as the spiritual image and likeness of God.

I began to see the necessity of constantly keeping my thoughts in harmony with God. There's a Bible verse in Philippians—the fourth chapter—that I found very helpful. It's the one that reads, "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things."

There was plenty in that verse to keep me busy and to keep me interested too. And I found that obeying it brings a mental freedom. As a result, I gained a broader outlook and a better attitude toward my home and children. We stopped going to drinking parties, for our whole sense of values had been improved.

I'd been so dependent on matter—alcohol, cigarettes, cathartics, sleeping pills. But I found that the understanding of God as infinite Spirit, Life, Truth, and Love, entirely good and all-powerful, frees us from fear and tension. And so I was released from these enslaving habits.

I was helped so much with the children too. I've found freedom from fear and protection for them in the understanding that man is actually the image of God, guided and governed by His protecting law.

This understanding has helped me in connection with my husband too, because his work is very strenuous, and he has to do a lot of traveling. I've been freed of nagging worries, and this helps him also. And Christian Science has brought into our home physical healings of earache, severe colds, impetigo, hernia. Formerly, we just seemed to have one illness right after another.

As our understanding of this truth has grown, such mental conditions as irritability, harshness, and friction have gradually diminished so that each of us is more patient and toward the other. Our home is so much happier than it used to be, and all of us are so grateful.

Speaker: Thank you, Mrs. Roberts. It was good of you to tell us of the way things worked out in your family. What a familiar family situation you have given us ! Fear, irritation, and confusion so often try to take over a home. And we can understand how grateful you are that you have found a new purpose in life and learned the basis for a happy, harmonious home.

Friends, what was it that changed this situation? Our guest began to get a new understanding of God and of man too. The Bible tells us that God is infinite Spirit and that man is made in His likeness. Man is therefore spiritual, not material and physical. Christian Science explains that man's true purpose, his reason for existing, is to express God. In the measure that we come to understand man's true purpose, this spiritual understanding corrects discord and wipes out aimlessness and seeming futility that sometimes come into human experience. It brings new opportunities for usefulness.

On one occasion Christ Jesus said of his own life purpose, "To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth." And so the unfailing guide for you and me, whether in business or at home, is to follow to the best of our ability the example of the Master by bearing witness to divine Truth, to God's goodness and love. Our real aim must be to express God's qualities in daily life. As indicated by the Bible verse from Philippians which our guest found so helpful, she began to see the necessity of keeping her thoughts in harmony with God and with things that are pure, honest, just, lovely, and of good report.

It takes a deep sense of humility and sincerity to be willing to put out self-pity, self-indulgence, and fear and to replace them with receptivity to divine direction. This process of thought is described by Mrs. Eddy in an interesting statement from Science and Health (pp. 323, 324): "Willingness to become as a little child and to leave the old for the new, renders thought receptive of the advance idea. Gladness to leave the false landmarks and joy to see them disappear,—this disposition helps to precipitate the ultimate harmony."

The musical selection on the program was Hymn No. 263 from the Christian Science Hymnal (Only God can bring us gladness).

Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit.—I Corinthians 2 :9, 10.