In "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany," Mary Baker Eddy writes (pp. 149, 150): "Remember, thou canst be brought into no condition, be it ever so severe, where Love has not been before thee and where its tender lesson is not awaiting thee. Therefore despair not nor murmur, for that which seeketh to save, to heal, and to deliver, will guide thee, if thou seekest this guidance."

Our Leader does not say, "that which is able to save." She says, "that which seeketh to save." The manifestation of Love, or the Christ, is unceasingly reaching mankind in infinite tenderness and compassion. This ever-present and ever-active impartation of Love was likened by Christ Jesus to the shepherd who goes forth into the wilderness to seek the lost sheep and carries it home on his shoulders

Through the ages, the servants of the one true God have found that "that which seeketh to save" was with them and has delivered them in apparently hopeless situations. An example of this is the experience of the three Hebrews, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. King Nebuchadnezzar had ordered that, at the sound of certain music, all those assembled for the dedication of a golden idol which he had caused to be set up should fall down and worship it. To enforce this order, he had decreed that anyone who refused to do so should be cast into a fiery furnace.

The three Hebrews, who had declared (Dan. 3:18), "Be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up," were cast into the furnace. But in the very midst of the flames they found that "that which seeketh to save," the eternal manifestation of Love, was with them and saved them.

Even the king felt the presence of the Christ, for he said (verse 25), "Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God."

The three men came forth unharmed by the flames. The fourth was not a person but was the eternal Christ, the manifestation of Love, God.

Human beings cannot escape testing times in the journey from sense to Soul, and some of these trials seem like furnace fires. But we can know that the Christ-spirit, which "seeketh to save, to heal, and to deliver," is ever with us. This outpouring of Love is like God's hand reaching out to us. Jeremiah expressed it in these words: "TheLord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee" (31:3).

We are never alone when battling with some error, for Love is our ever-present refuge, strength, and help. We need to let go of the errors we are tempted to cling to so tenaciously and realize God's allness and the nothingness of all that is unlike Him. Then we shall feel the power of Spirit, God, lifting us into newness of life, health, and holiness.

In healing sin and sickness through Christian Science we can avail ourselves of "that which seeketh to save," the ceaseless activity of the power and presence of Love. We should always remember that there is no power, activity, or presence apart from God, good.

Mrs. Eddy writes in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (pp. 109, 110), "The three great verities of Spirit, omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience,—Spirit possessing all power, filling all space, constituting all Science,—contradict forever the belief that matter can be actual." Spiritual existence is the only real existence, because Spirit is the only real presence.

A Christian Scientist who was serving a term as Reader in a branch church had for several months much physical discord to overcome while he was reading. Finally he learned to hold steadfastly to the truth that there is nothing present but God and His Christ and that we all are "hid with Christ in God" (Col. 3:3). As he stepped out on the platform, the realization of the one healing presence brought him strength and freedom.

Our Leader says in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 185), "Self-renunciation of all that constitutes a so-called material man, and the acknowledgment and achievement of his spiritual identity as the child of God, is Science that opens the very flood-gates of heaven; whence good flows into every avenue of being, cleansing mortals of all uncleanness, destroying all suffering, and demonstrating the true image and likeness." Through their self-renunciation, fidelity to God, and uplifted faith, the three Hebrews gained a glimpse of their true identities as sons of God, eternal and indestructible.

In order to be Christian Scientists we must be willing in every experience to learn Love's "tender lesson" by calling upon the Christ, "which seeketh to save."