Christianity is a universal religion. It excludes no one. It makes each individual important. And it meets every kind of human need. Christ Jesus said, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." ^{Matt. 11:28:} The Master was directing all men to find their perfect identity in Christ, Truth, where man exists as the spiritual likeness of God.

Christian Science clarifies the meaning of Christianity as Jesus practiced it. For instance, this Science reveals man as the idea through which the divine character is expressed. And this is why the individual is so important. This is also why every evil quality of thought can be cast out as illegitimate and unreal.

Because Christian Science reveals the true concept of everyone, it is universal in its application. But it is also universal in its demands; it calls for the destruction of every limitation and inequality that material nature or evolution, environment or education, has sponsored. This must be done; but it takes some people longer than others to prove what they are in God's sight.

Perhaps Jesus intended that his parable of the eleventh hour recorded in the twentieth chapter of Matthew should point to the time and experience needed to overcome human inequalities. In this parable the men who worked in a vineyard from early morning or from the third, sixth, or ninth hour received the same payment in the evening as those who arrived at the eleventh hour.

We grasp the divine justice taught by this parable when we realize that no matter how difficult the carnal, or mortal, mind makes things for men in the material dream of life, Love has the same reward for all—the awakening to their spiritual perfection in Christ. Such perfection is as true as identity itself; and the purpose of the scientific Christianity taught by Jesus is to reveal this fact to everyone.

Christian Science is a universal religion because the God it declares is universal Love, one Father, who is impartial in His estimate of each individual regardless of the unjust differences of character or ability or intelligence imposed on men by human beliefs. Jesus demonstrated the power of Love as embracing the Samaritan, the Syrophoenician, the Greek, the Canaanite, with the same healing influence that it embraced members of his own race. We note his respect for women as well as for men, his affection for innocent children as well as for sinful adults, his love for friends and enemies alike.

The Master's Christian requirements for his followers were not stated in terms of gender, age, nationality, or economic status but of moral ability to reform and spiritual ability to find heaven deep within thought. He said, "Every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life."' ^19:29; No individual is left out here—"every one," he said. When men forsake the mortal sense of existence, they become conscious of their immortal inheritance.

The color of a person's skin cannot keep him from demonstrating life and health or from living the Christliness of God's image; nor can it keep him from proving God's bounty. Any inequalities of race or ability that heredity or environment or human cruelty has produced can be reduced until they disappear. But "every one"' must know who he really is, regardless of what he seems to human sense to be.

In Science, divine Mind makes its ideas equal under the law of perfection, and this law is available universally. Once we see the perfection of man as universal in fact and application, we see the demand placed upon us by the Father—to give up prejudices about caste or race or religion and look for and work for the appearing of the real qualities of everyone, including ourselves. An innate sense of justice wakes a yearning to bring the real man to light, and this same compassionate quality must lead mankind to find the wisest human means for destroying inequality of opportunity to work out what is true of man. Such means are essential as a step to the demonstration of universal peace.

In Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures Mary Baker Eddy says, "Let us learn of the real and eternal, and prepare for the reign of Spirit, the kingdom of heaven,—the reign and rule of universal harmony, which cannot be lost nor remain forever unseen." ^{Science and Health, p. 208;}

Mankind must learn to face patiently and intelligently the problems of inequality and injustice that confront their world, until their higher nature has led them to rectify every evil wrought by mortal mind. Neglect and oppression of all kinds must give way before the power of Love. When the Science of man is more widely understood, steps taken to establish equity on the whole earth will be direct and successful because they will be impelled by the one Mind in all wisdom and love.

The proof of the universality of man's existence in Christ, or Truth, will eventually rescue the world from the evils that touch us all. Mrs. Eddy says, "It is 'a consummation devoutly to be wished' that all nations shall speedily learn and practise the intermediate line of justice between the classes and masses of mankind, and thus exemplify in all things the universal equity of Christianity."  ^{The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 181.}

Helen Wood Bauman