Good is constant because the source of good is constant. The nature of good never varies. The unfolding of good in individual experience is governed by changeless divine law. The Bible states this law in these terms: "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning" (James 1: 17). Through Christian Science we can understand the Principle of good and demonstrate the spiritual law which unfolds it.

To demonstrate this law practically, we have to know what good really is. It is not material. The scientific definition of "good" is given by Mrs. Eddy in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 587): "God; Spirit; omnipotence; omniscience; omnipresence; omniaction." Therefore good and God are inseparable. Good is spiritual and is as unvarying as God.

All genuine good, every bit of it, without any exception, originates in and is imparted by God. Since our real identity is the spiritual reflection of God, we receive good through Mind, not matter. Good always comes to us as spiritual ideas, as expressions of the power of Spirit, of the presence of Truth, of the action of Love. It is discernible as wisdom and understanding, strength and dominion, security and completeness, fearlessness and humility, health and joy. The flow of these good and perfect gifts from God to man is constant.

Someone may be thinking, "But one's supply can vary from great wealth to extreme poverty, his condition from health to sickness, his mental state from happiness to deep depression—what about such variableness in good?" Good itself does not vary. The spiritual idea of supply, health, and happiness is incapable of variation; it is only the departure from it that makes it seem to vary.

This variableness is the result of believing that good exists as a form of matter; that it is produced by material forces through material methods; that it may be increased or decreased by material persons. To the degree that we look for good in matter, just to that degree will good seem to be variable. But to the degree that we look to Spirit for good, just to that degree shall we find that it neither waxes nor wanes.

And how do we demonstrate the law which unfolds this changeless good in our own lives? Through prayer. Mrs. Eddy explains what prayer does in "No and Yes" (p. 39): "Prayer can neither change God, nor bring His designs into mortal modes; but it can and does change our modes and our false sense of Life, Love, and Truth, uplifting us to Him. Such prayer humiliates, purifies, and quickens activity, in the direction that is unerring."

When human consciousness rests at the level of material sense, we stubbornly outline what we think we want in terms of matter. But when human consciousness is uplifted by the prayer of spiritual understanding, we gladly let divine Mind outline what we really need. Then, under Mind's unerring direction, we find ourselves taking the right human footsteps which lead to a better job, a happier home, better health, more satisfying companionship, greater usefulness, in short, to a practical demonstration of the power and activity of good.

Sometimes it seems as if good would unfold if there were a change in matter. This is not so. Good unfolds only from Spirit and through Spirit, in which there is not even a shadow of turning. When he was hungry, Christ Jesus was tempted by the devil with the subtle suggestion that a change in the form of matter would be beneficial. "If thou be the Son of God," Satan urged, "command that these stones be made bread" (Matt. 4:3).

But the Master knew that it was not matter as stone or bread or in any other form that would give him what he really needed. He rejected the suggestion with this declaration of the source, substance, and nature of all good: "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."

Sometimes it seems as if we should have more good if we had more matter: more money, more material things. This is not so. It is not more materiality, but more spirituality which unfolds good. It was with this same suggestion that the devil tempted Jesus when he showed him the entire material kingdom, saying, "All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me."

These material things, no matter how many there are, cannot possibly constitute the good and perfect gift which comes down from the Father of lights. Jesus knew this, and he emphatically rejected the suggestion thus: "Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve."

These words and their consequence have deep significance to those who seek to demonstrate the Principle of good, because the Way-shower once and for all repudiated the inferior, variable, material sense of good and acknowledged prayer and obedience to God as the spiritual means wherein good unfolds. The result was this: "Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him."

These angels of God's presence, these pure and holy thoughts, are always coming from God to men, are always ready to minister to them. They are the representatives of divine wisdom; they symbolize divine power; they typify divine blessings. They furnish illumination and inspiration; they supply guidance and protection; they counteract all that is unlike good. In Jesus' case, these exalted thoughts directed him unerringly to the Principle of all good, enabling him to demonstrate it so practically that it has blessed mankind for many centuries.

So it must be with our own demonstration, for Mrs. Eddy assures us in her book "Retrospection and Introspection" (p. 64), "God's ways and works and thoughts have never changed, either in Principle or practice." Therefore we must bring our ways and works and thoughts into harmony with God. And when we do, we shall find that the unfolding of good is not the addition of something we did not before possess, but the revelation and demonstration of that which has always been present—limitless, changeless, ceaseless good.