Despite an increase in world population of both men and women, some institutions that humanity counts on for moral and spiritual progress are too often finding active male participation on the decline.

We might wonder if the world is losing sight of true manhood. Such a possibility cannot be taken lightly. Mrs. Eddy writes, "The male element is a strong supporting arm to religion as well as to politics, and we need in our ranks of divine energy, the strong, the faithful, the untiring spiritual armament." ^{The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 355;}

As in every area where there seems to be a lack of some rightful thing, the real need is wholly mental and always requires a spiritual solution. It may seem there is either a shortage of spiritual vision among men or that not enough of those who have this vision are accepting the responsibility of uplifting and spiritualizing human lives. In either case the real need is for a better understanding of the present perfection and completeness of God's creation.

The opening chapter of the Bible discloses that God created man in His own image, "male and female," giving them dominion "over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth." And that "God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good." ^{See Gen. 1:26-31;} Only after the mist of mortality enters the picture in the second chapter is creation thought to be divided and incomplete. Only in this misrepresentation of creation, this misty dream, can there even seem to be a lack of some desirable quality or thing.

Christ Jesus showed the ideal man, God's man, who expresses a uniquely individual blending of all types of qualities. Jesus exemplified sound judgment, spiritual strength, moral courage, trustworthiness, decisiveness, and also compassion, tenderness, purity, intuition, patience. These helped to give him mastery over a very wide range of human conditions—all that were presented to him. We, like Jesus, need to reject the dream of materialism, including its claim of incompleteness, and claim our wholeness.

What if there seems to be a shortage of strong, wise masculine qualities right where they are most needed? We can insist there is no power that can snatch away God's complete and perfect creation or put it to sleep. No power exists or ever has that can hide God's infinite nature, destroy it, or pervert any portion of it. Creation needs no improvements or additions. The claim that it does is a lie, a denial of man's completeness and of God's ability and willingness to intelligently maintain and govern His creation.

I learned something of the benefit of this kind of reasoning during a church building project requiring considerable trimming of costs and increasing efficiency. The problems seemed to mount steadily and to become more complex. In the midst of the confusion I phoned a Christian Science practitioner for help through prayer and heard myself say, "If only I were a man, I could cope with this better." I'll never forget her quick reminder that generic manhood, not human maleness, was what was needed here and what I really had. God's man includes all His qualities. As the belief of incompleteness dropped away, so did obstacles to the project, and it went forward with remarkable harmony to a satisfactory conclusion.

Whether we are men or women, we can make a more consecrated effort to express all the divine qualities, and we can watch for and appreciate these qualities in others. This will set a higher standard for all humanity. Our activities will not only attract those individuals who cherish Christliness but will also tend to show a better proportion of men and women.

All of God's qualities remain undiminished, untarnished, undepleted; we are never really separated from them. Opposite suggestions are unreal, powerless, and as we resist them they give place to the real and good. As Mrs. Eddy assures us, "... scientific growth manifests no weakness, no emasculation, no illusive vision, no dreamy absentness, no insubordination to the laws that be, no loss nor lack of what constitutes true manhood." ^{Miscellaneous Writings, p. 206.}

Let's not give in to the aggressive suggestion of a partial creation. The expression of man's completeness, of true manhood and womanhood, is intact, and we have the opportunity each day to prove it.