The material outlook in many parts of the world today seems dismal indeed in its presentations of insufficiency and inharmony. Disagreement among nations, uncoordinated relations between races, intolerance among social groups, and rebellion in families— all are causing concern to men whose scope of thought is universal rather than local or personal.

Consideration of these problems from an entirely human standpoint of correction, even though impelled by benevolence, may result in ameliorative, but seldom curative, action. It is not conditions so much as concepts that stand in primary need of change, and this change can be properly made only through reeducation carried on from a spiritual standpoint. The world's hunger for betterment can be fed only through spiritually-based action.

When Christ Jesus was confronted with the urgent necessity of providing food for about five thousand people who had followed him into a desert place, he turned to his immediate disciples and, with the simplicity of absolute spiritual conviction, asked them to take care of the situation. Their reply was, "We have no more but five loaves and two fishes; except we should go and buy meat for all this people." ^{Luke 9:13;} It is obvious from these words that the disciples gathered their limited information from a material outlook, and the information was as erroneous as the outlook. But how different was their Master's consideration of the problem!

The Biblical account continues: "He took the five loaves and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed them, and brake, and gave to the disciples to set before the multitude. And they did eat, and were all filled: and there was taken up of fragments that remained to them twelve baskets." ^{vv. 16, 17;} Because Jesus looked away from materiality to the wholly spiritual source of all good, he beheld and demonstrated the inexhaustible abundance of God's provision of good. He knew that man as the image and likeness of God is continually sustained by his divine Principle. The correctness of his upward vision determined the correctness of his information.

To look down implies despondency, doubt, and unwillingness to exercise the power of good over the hypnotic pull of materiality. As long as one permits thought to be so mesmerized, he cannot be aware of the encompassing glories of ever-present Love, which awaits only men's recognition in order to pour forth more blessings than can be conceived of. Human experience is largely governed by the direction which thinking takes, whether up or down. Therefore, as the disciples learned, harmony is not determined by conditions of matter but by qualities of thought.

Christian Science emphasizes the importance of raising one's vision, of lifting thought resolutely from a mesmeric preoccupation with materiality to a higher standpoint, that of spiritual reality. In the textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered and founded this practical, healing religion, writes: "Mortals must look beyond fading, finite forms, if they would gain the true sense of things. Where shall the gaze rest but in the unsearchable realm of Mind? We must look where we would walk, and we must act as possessing all power from Him in whom we have our being." ^{Science and Health, p. 264;}

When a deaf mute was brought to Christ Jesus for healing, the Master was neither impressed nor depressed by the physical outlook. Looking beyond the "fading, finite forms" of malformation and malfunction, he immediately exercised his divinely derived power to discard the presentations of abnormality and to establish "the true sense of things" for the sufferer. The Biblical description is vivid: "He took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spit, and touched his tongue; and looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened. And straightway his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain." ^{Mark 7: 33-35;}

Because his spiritual gaze rested entirely "in the unsearchable realm of Mind," Jesus beheld the ever-present glory of Life as God and demonstrated the redeeming force of Truth and Love. He knew that man is complete and perfect, always expressing his God-bestowed faculties. Had the material outlook engaged the Master's attention, the spiritual vision would have been lost. But his unwavering heavenward look enabled him to "act as possessing all power"' and thereby to demonstrate the dominion of the Christ, which rejects the presentations of the carnal mind and subdues them.

Should we find ourselves under the threat of sickness or sin of any kind, let us be courageous in not lowering our gaze to the level of materiality! We need a more steadfast spiritual vision, a stronger conviction of the power and efficacy of good, a steadier eye on the eternal realities of health and holiness. The mighty spiritual forces of Love are at hand to deliver us from every aggressive presentation of mortality, but we must hold our gaze in the right direction —upward! Let us be more consistent in looking Spiritward for the truth of man as the immortal, holy, healthy expression of the creative Principle, God. In so doing, we accept without reservation the present perfection of man's condition.

In Unity of Good, Mrs. Eddy writes: "Jesus required neither cycles of time nor thought in order to mature fitness for perfection and its possibilities. He said that the kingdom of heaven is here, and is included in Mind; that while ye say, There are yet four months, and then cometh the harvest, I say, Look up, not down, for your fields are already white for the harvest; and gather the harvest by mental, not material processes." ^{Un., p. 11.}