Good sportsmanship and fair play are two attitudes essential to successful participation in athletics. The schools offer a wide variety of sports in which young people can participate, thereby developing precision, accuracy, loyalty, agility, and brotherly love. These helpful qualities of thought further the young Christian Scientist in his contacts at school and in many cases provide him with vivid examples of God's ever-present help in times of need.

Establishing in consciousness a scientific sense of unfailing strength is often necessary in athletic participation. Christian Science teaches that man is the image and likeness of his Maker and therefore can never be separated from his divine source of strength and activity. Christ Jesus certainly never acknowledged a time when God and man were separated. On the contrary, his great healing works were accomplished by the recognition that man is God's reflection. He knew without a doubt that God is the ever-present source of man's activity, health, wholeness, peace, and ability. An understanding of the perfection of God and man enables one to counteract the common belief that man is a mortal, with limited ability and intelligence.

A young Christian Scientist, engaged in a challenge match on the tennis courts, had an opportunity to utilize her understanding of Christian Science. She had established an orderly rhythm and sure-footed precision in her playing, essential to the game. She was ahead of her opponent by a small margin, but struggling to maintain her position.

The temptation to believe that she lacked the ability to make accurate placements on decisive points came to her. The day was very warm, and the threat of exhaustion presented itself. Fear began to creep in, and the player wondered apprehensively whether she would be able to keep up the pace of play which had kept her in the lead until then.

The contest was far from over, and already it seemed as if her strength were waning. She gradually began to accept these confused aggressive suggestions as her own thinking.

As she walked slowly back to the base line, preparing to serve the ball, she realized that she was listening to fear, instead of to the one divine Mind, the source of every true thought. In the Christian Science Sunday School she had been taught that the opposite of error is true, and she knew she must reverse these erroneous suggestions by acknowledging the truth.

She began to reason that because she was in reality the expression of infinite Truth, she expressed exactness and limitless ability; therefore her actions need not be sloppy or undependable. Because omniactive Mind rests in action, she really rested in the reflection of this Mind. In omniaction there is no fatigue. Mind is eternally rested. And then she thought, "So am I as Mind's image and likeness."

The reference to the wheel, found in Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy, came to thought (p. 218): "You do not say a wheel is fatigued; and yet the body is as material as the wheel. If it were not for what the human mind says of the body, the body, like the inanimate wheel, would never be weary. The consciousness of Truth rests us more than hours of repose in unconsciousness."

The temptation came to complain about the heat and fatigue to the other player during brief intermissions; but the counteracting truth came immediately. "Don't prophesy erroneously." We cannot logically deny the suggestions of error mentally and at the same time give them power in our speech. Rejoicing in this truth, the player sang to herself the words of Hymn No. 144 in the Christian Science Hymnal,

Our Leader writes in Science and Health (pp. 390, 391), "Rise in the conscious strength of the spirit of Truth to overthrow the plea of mortal mind, alias matter, arrayed against the supremacy of Spirit."

Rejoicing in the ever-present strength of Spirit, the Christian Scientist continued to play. She knew that strength can never be used up. She likened it to the figure 2. No matter how many people are writing the figure 2, using it in infinite calculations, it is never used up. It is inexhaustible. Strength also, being an idea in Mind, can never be used up, no matter how much we use it. It is inexhaustible. The strong currents of Truth forever flow to man, uninterrupted.

As the player gratefully acknowledged God as the only cause and source of her strength, ability, and accuracy, she became aware that her shots were increasingly well placed and that the score was rising in her favor. The sense of exhaustion and heat gave way to the joyous acknowledgment that man in God's likeness is tireless and undisturbed, and fear gave way to confidence.

While knowing these truths, she realized they applied to everyone. She included all of God's ideas in her thought, for she knew God to be impartial. Every one of His children reflects the divine qualities of accuracy, strength, alertness, and ability. She knew that her own perfection as the divine image and likeness did not prevent her opponent from expressing the same qualities.

Lovingly acknowledging God as the source of all being, she was released from any sense of personal pride or egotism and prayed in humility for her performance to manifest her worthiness. With perfect assurance, undisturbed by fearful influences, she advanced to win the match.

We read in Luke (10:27), "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself." Putting God first ensures success in any line of endeavor.