One day when I was in the Air Force, I went to an after-work party; and as I walked into the room, a lieutenant was telling a joke. He had the attention of the other officers, all right, but it wasn't a very good joke, and when he finished, there was a little laughter, but not much. In about five minutes the General arrived. As soon as he had his refreshments in hand, he began to tell a story, and it was the same one the lieutenant had told. The men hung on his every word, and when the General gave the punch line, the laughter was deafening. It was a matter of rank.

But how do we rank our neighbor? Are we interested in him? Do we really care about the qualities he expresses? The answers to these questions bear heavily on our ability to get along with others. In fact, they have much to do with our success in life. In business, the successful executive is the one who can see the possibilities and bring out the potential in an employee. In the theater, the successful actor is the one who can sense the qualities an audience responds to and addresses himself to them. In marriage, the successful husband or wife is the one who can lift his partner up, help him to find himself and to realize the brightness of his talents. And the successful parent is the one who can unfold in his child the capacities he naturally has.

Christian Science helps us to be successful in every field of human life. It does this on the basis of the Biblical commandments, given by Moses and stressed by Christ Jesus, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart . . . and thy neighbour as thyself."  ^{Luke 10:27;} These commandments may seem confusing to us when we are trying to get along with someone we think of as impossible. But with Christian Science we learn to see the evil in a person as unreal and to prove that it is unreal. Then we can see what is real; and it is always worth seeing.

This Science teaches us that man is the image and likeness of God, divine Mind. Man is therefore perfect. He reflects divine Love; so he is lovely. He manifests divine Truth; so he is true in all ways. He reflects divine intelligence; so he is always wise. And so on. What we see as imperfect man is not the real man. When we understand the unreality of evil, which man, the idea of Mind, could not possibly reflect, we can see that evil does not belong to the individual. And we can deny the evil and love the good, which is the real.

If this seems difficult to understand, we need another important fact revealed by Christian Science: that since God is Spirit, man is spiritual. Matter, therefore, is not the manifestation of God, and man is not material. The human personality which seems to be both spiritual and material, both good and evil, can be understood only by examining it in the light of Truth. In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mary Baker Eddy writes: "Absorbed in material selfhood we discern and reflect but faintly the substance of Life or Mind. The denial of material selfhood aids the discernment of man's spiritual and eternal individuality, and destroys the erroneous knowledge gained from matter or through what are termed the material senses."  ^{Science and Health, p. 91;}

It is possible to see every individual as he really is, the perfect reflection of God. In some cases it may not seem easy; but we must admit that it is possible. In fact, our ultimate goal is to have everyone recognize this fact, beginning with ourselves. Jesus recognized the real man, and he was able to heal the sick and raise the dead. It was his great love, not for evil men but for the real qualities he saw in every individual, that enabled him to lay down his life for mankind and to say on the cross, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do."  ^{Luke 23:34.}

As we learn to see our neighbor in the light of the Christ, Truth, as Jesus did, we learn also to heal. We learn to honor every individual for what is true of him. We rank him high enough so that we are not annoyed at his errors, but rather love him for his God-like qualities. A spiritual understanding of our neighbor also enables us to rebuke lovingly and effectively the ungodlike thoughts we see. As with the Master, so with us: we may not always be loved in return for such rebukes; in fact, our very presence may be at times despised, but we can still love, and that love will have its eventual effect.

God has dominion over all, and man reflects that dominion. We demonstrate dominion in our own lives as we understand the truth of God and man and actively practice denying material error and honoring spiritual reality. Our most constant opportunities to do this, perhaps, are in our daily relationships with our fellowmen. As we see through the errors of material belief and behold in each individual the real man, we find his true rank as an idea of God. Then our world becomes a wonderful place filled with wonderful people.

Carl J. Welz