Just how far should you get involved in dealing with the social, political, and moral problems that beset our age? Is the conspicuous noncommitment of many young people simply their answer to the policy of reticence and noninvolvement they may have seen in their elders?

The approach of the student of Christian Science to this whole arena of involvement is unique in human history and very effective. For he is not just a single human being nor the member of a small group battling valiantly the whole spectrum of social ills. He is not just a social theoretician trying out this plan or that, hoping against hope that something will work.

The Christian Scientist understands that all men, including him-self, are in truth the perfect reflection of that all-pervasive Love which is God. This is the idea of Love and Principle which impelled Christ Jesus to dedicate his life to the service of his Father. It was the guiding force in the life of Mrs. Eddy, who taught men that even in this age Truth is the one great compelling spiritual force in the world.

The Scientist knows that God, Love, is the only actual creative power in the universe. Understanding his own dominion as the reflection of Love, he knows at the very outset that he is not an embattled mortal fighting for right but God's beloved son, recognizing right as already established, as the only reality. This is the Scientist's view of himself in the midst of civil struggle.

Then there is his view of the problem. He realizes that his opponent—whether he is an opposition party politician, an individual of differing social views, a member of a group holding out for special privilege and power, or a military adversary—has two things in common with him: his divine, spiritual origin as a child of God and the opposite error, the common enemy that in Christian Science we call evil or aggressive mental suggestion. He recognizes the mesmeric, dreamlike of baseless error, attempting to stop mankind's progress toward a higher understanding and demonstration of equality, productivity, brotherhood.

In her article "Love Your Enemies" Mrs. Eddy says: "I would enjoy taking by the hand all who love me not, and saying to them, 'I love you, and would not knowingly harm you.' Because I thus feel, I say to others: Hate no one; for hatred is a plague-spot that spreads its virus and kills at last." ^{Miscellaneous Writings, pp. 11, 12;} Right here this inspired woman has marked out for us the central problem. Hatred is the real enemy both of ourselves and of our so-called foes. Therefore love is the best weapon we can possibly have, for it destroys hate.

We should also consider the Christian Scientist's view of the individuals he is attempting to help. As he goes into battle with the sword of Spirit in hand, he knows where the victory lies. It is in his understanding that those people he would uplift are already the children of God, whole and free, and that the ideals he would defend are already successfully upheld by God, regardless of what the false mortal picture may be. The Father-Mother God ensures the perfection of man and the permanence of His justice. The Christian Scientist must see impartiality and kindness as irrevocable conditions of God's universe.

Thus the human footsteps the Christian Scientist is led to take to alleviate what seems to be injustice and human suffering are exactly as effective as is his prayerful metaphysical preparation. As he opens of all thought, humbly and gratefully, to God, our overflowing source of all right ideas, step by step he will find himself increasingly able to meet the human need, and to meet it practically. He can be neither overinvolved nor underinvolved, but only rightly involved. He won't be tempted to renege on his responsibility to his fellowmen. He will never feel alone in the battle while knowing, as David knew, that "thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine." ^{I Chron. 29:11;} Giving God the majesty is most important. Knowing that the healing power is His effectively deals with the snare of self-congratulation!

The most intelligent thing we can do is dedicated metaphysical work before taking practical action. How else can one know whether that action is truly right?

A number of years ago a young Christian Science couple were led to invite a friend to share their home. The friend, who was a Negro, was unable to rent an apartment in a large city because of race prejudice. Ghetto properties were very expensive and unattractive, and very little integrated housing was available. The young Scientists were faced with the possibility of open hostility from fellow tenants in an all-white building in an all-white block. To prepare for the harmonious integration of their apartment, they needed much prayer to see man as totally reflecting Love, as incapable of prejudicial behavior. Prayer was the only practical tool they had.

But how effective! The Negro friend was received as an individual rather than as a member of another race, and throughout the year she lived with the couple there was not one shiver of tension. It was a time of tremendous growth and happiness for the Scientists, opening up for them a degree of self-knowledge and broadened interests that otherwise would not have been possible.

Mrs. Eddy saw Christian Science as the most practical and decisive means of social and political reform. In Retrospection and Introspection she tells us: "The right teacher of Christian Science lives the truth he teaches. Preeminent among men, he virtually stands at the head of all sanitary, civil, moral, and religious reform." ^{Ret., p. 70;} In Pulpit and Press she observes that "from first to last The Mother Church seemed type and shadow of the warfare between the flesh and Spirit, even that shadow whose substance is the divine Spirit, imperatively propelling the greatest moral, physical, civil, and religious reform ever known on earth." ^{Pul., p. 20;}

Right now many Christian Scientists around the world are seeking to demonstrate the accuracy of Mrs. Eddy's expectations. Actually, we are all taking direct action as we prayerfully read The Christian Science Monitor daily, vote, and participate intelligently in community affairs, support our branch Church of Christ, Scientist, practice integrity and humanity at our places of business, or pursue any special activity that seems needful to uplift human consciousness and help our brother men. We are involved. "Whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed." ^{James 1:25 .}