The end of a year is a good time for taking stock. What have we gained during the past year and what have we lost? And what can we do next year to increase the gains and to prevent the losses?

To answer these questions scientifically, we need a standard by which we can gauge our progress. Christian Science gives us such a standard by revealing to us the true nature of man in God's image. This real man is never less than perfect. Mary Baker Eddy writes on page 470 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures": "God is the creator of man, and, the divine Principle of man remaining perfect, the divine idea or reflection, man, remains perfect. Man is the expression of God's being."

According to this standard, we gain if we move in the direction of realizing and demonstrating our true nature as the expression of divine Principle. We lose if we move away from this realization toward the belief that we are material beings living outside divine perfection. Mrs. Eddy says (ibid., p. 254), "Imperfect mortals grasp the ultimate of spiritual perfection slowly; but to begin aright and to continue the strife of demonstrating the great problem of being, is doing much."

It is not sufficient to look at the events of the past year and say that only the good is real. There are lessons to be learned from the mistakes we have made, as well as from our accomplishments. The year we have passed through can never be relived. A day or a moment given to error is a day or a moment lost. But we can turn this loss into gain by learning the lesson from it. And the lesson is that the spiritual reality of man in God's image is demonstrable every day.

We can do more than say that only the good is real; we can prove it. But this proof demands progress out of the error of material belief into the truth which is entirely spiritual.

An excellent example of human striving to overcome claims of mortality is found in the life of King David. David made mistakes some of which could never be corrected. But he faced up to his errors honestly. He suffered in punishment, and he repented. The lessons he learned made him a better man.

When he committed adultery with Bath-sheba, he arranged to have her husband killed in battle in an effort to cover up his sin. Nathan, the prophet, made David see the gravity of the error he had committed, and David said (II Sam. 12:13), "I have sinned against the Lord." The depth of the lesson David learned may be indicated in these words (Ps. 51:10-17): "Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. . . . For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise."

The child that was born to David and Bath-sheba died. But having learned that sin brings only suffering, David lifted his heart to higher thoughts and ways. He went on living a successful life, and his marriage to Bath-sheba became a successful marriage. Their next child, Solomon, followed David on the throne.

The year that is to come will soon be the year just past. As we look back, can we not learn to make the coming year a more successful one? Out of the three hundred and sixty-five days to come is there any real excuse for a single day that is not productive?

We have always at hand the truth that we are actually God's ideas. We have available to us for our daily study and deep contemplation the great teaching of the Bible, including the lessons to be learned from the lives of those who sought and taught man's relationship to God, We have the Ten Commandments, given by Moses. We have the Sermon on the Mount, given by Christ Jesus. We have also all the writings of our God-inspired Leader, Mrs. Eddy, including the textbook, Science and Health, and the Manual of The Mother Church. In these writings we have the explanation of the way through which we can understand and practice the wonderful truths of the Bible and live more successful lives.

This explanation includes the fact that human experience is not divine reality, but by the realization of the nothingness of material sense and the allness of spiritual good, we shall find that human experience can be made more and more like the divine. Then a human experience which teaches us a lesson does not merely give us a healing in the process; it lifts us higher in the demonstration of true being. Then each experience results in more dominion over sin, disease, and death.

In "Miscellaneous Writings," Mrs. Eddy tells us (p. 341), "First purify thought, then put thought into words, and words into deeds; and after much slipping and clambering, you will go up the scale of Science to the second rule, and be made ruler over many things." Knowing this, we can look forward to the New Year as three hundred and sixty-five days of progress, each one a day in which we have overcome some error and have given more joy and love to those around us, each one a day of victory and readiness for the next day.

Carl J. Welz