On the wall behind the Readers' desk in our branch Church of Christ, Scientist, these words from the Bible are painted: "With all thy getting get understanding." ^{Prov. 4:7;} Every time I enter the auditorium, I glance at that quotation, and it never fails to inspire me. There is joy in understanding God and the real man, His reflection.

Christ Jesus taught man's sonship with God, and Mrs. Eddy shows clearly and convincingly in the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health, the coincidence between the divine Spirit and the real man, made in Spirit's likeness. We can practically apply this understanding of our true identity and coincidence with the Father. Convinced of our real being as God's children—spiritual and not material—we can go forward to demonstrate that the loved child of God is not involved in wrongdoing, sickness, or death.

When we look around us, what do we see or think we see? Mostly what we expect and perhaps fear, which is frequently sickness and sin—unless we are on guard to perceive the truth of man. It is only material thinking that sees evil and would tell us this is the truth. Spiritual understanding teaches us how to reason scientifically from a different basis. Mrs. Eddy states, as the sixth tenet of Christian Science, "And we solemnly promise to watch, and pray for that Mind to be in us which was also in Christ Jesus; to do unto others as we would have them do unto us; and to be merciful, just, and pure." ^{Science and Health, p. 497;} We therefore dismiss this belief of sin, sickness, and death for what the belief is—a dream without substance and completely untrue.

An erring mortal, at whom we may have looked askance, does not represent man in the image of God. Our understanding reveals this to us. We know this mortal image is but an illusion, completely without substance or reality. Therefore, we can turn to the true understanding and be guided by the divine Mind.

The perfect man is the only true and substantial image. Nothing can hide the truth from us if we honestly pray and strive to know the reality of God, Truth, which banishes all fear and dispels the hypnotism of mortal beliefs.

A branch church was beginning to have a small attendance. One member noticed a tendency among several other members to gossip, criticize, and even to shirk their church duties. This individual asked a couple of other dedicated members to help her in seeing what was spiritually true of their church. They readily assented, and the three prayed, not to cure the other members of their attitudes and behavior, but to overcome their own feelings regarding the situation. This was, of course, the only way to tackle the challenge. The Bible states, "First cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye." ^{Matt. 7:5.}

Slowly the members appeared in a completely different light to the three workers. These three saw each member as the image of God, and the members responded. The errors simply melted away. A new spirit pervaded the membership. The difficulty was so completely overcome that people hardly remembered there had been a destructive element of mortal thinking among the members. Progressing from low attendance at the services, the church soon became comfortably full and has remained that way.

We go forward as we see ourselves and others, not in a mortal mist of sin, disease, and undesirable traits, but as man really is in Truth. It is of no use merely to declare the truth; we need to understand that we all are spiritual ideas and that God is expressing His perfect work in us. Then we can shed those mortal beliefs regarding our fellowmen. Unworthy traits appear only as real to us as we let them.

This realization of God's perfect work in and through us brings out the irrefutable truth in concrete ways. "With all thy getting get understanding." God will do the rest—in fact, it is already done.