A gift that the Science of Christianity provides us, one of vital importance to health, is the way to find fulfillment in our lives. To be fulfilled on earth, but not by earthly means, is the promise of truly Christian living.

Unsatisfied material yearnings, deep personal disappointments, broken hearts, if not met with spiritual understanding, can be seedbeds of disease. Christ, revealing the allness of God and the fullness of His idea, man, lifts human aspirations higher and makes their fulfillment surer. The potential for genuine fulfillment, with its congregate blessings for the whole earth, is enlarged as we heed the Christ, the voice of our heavenly Father communing with us.

Christ Jesus did those things that pleased his Father; he knew what those things were, for he was ever at one with his own Christly nature. And his life is the pattern for the lives of all Christians, the example for all true fulfillment, for substantive accomplishment on earth.

Wherever there is a righteous yearning, it need not be put down or pressed back; neither can we allow it to be counterfeited or to be let loose in an orgy of material pleasures. Legitimate yearning is, in essence, the desire to see God's kingdom fulfilled on earth.

If we are accustomed to think in terms of material satisfaction, we may find it hard at first to find the way of genuine fulfillment. Material ways constantly offer their solutions. Many people have become enslaved to smoking in response to advertising that suggests cigarettes satisfy. Others take more dangerous drugs that promise to fulfill a yearning for a changed experience. Still others have been pulled into a dependency on alcohol as they have sought this drug to relax them. Yet how many of these yearners have found appetites more out of control, boredom and dullness more acute, and tensions unrelieved!

"Soul is the infinite source of bliss: only high and holy joy can satisfy immortal cravings," ^{Miscellaneous Writings, p. 287.} writes Mrs. Eddy. Her writings make clear that man is not a yearning creature in an empty world. This man of God's creating is not the sinner, always missing the mark of accomplishment and fulfillment. Nor is he the aggrieved, seeking dubious satisfaction from earthly wrongs.

Through the ages revenge has promised satisfaction. A popular musical Sweeney Todd illustrates a natural consequence of this kind of satisfaction-seeking. We witness the end of Sweeney Todd, not personal fulfillment.

The only way to redress wrongs is to obey the Christly law uttered and lived by Jesus: "I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you." ^{Matt. 5:44.}

A scientific forgiveness that reasons out from the basis of perfect God and perfect man recognizes that in true, spiritual being—in the heaven of reality—there is no offense, no hurt, and no need for getting satisfaction for wrong done against one. The action of this divine law does not obviate the need for restitution nor ignore the blessed opportunity for making such restitution. It does recognize that satisfaction for those who have been wronged lies elsewhere. Satisfaction comes not from earthly ways and means, is not deferred until certain material conditions are met.

This is true for groups as well as for individuals, for institutions and nations. "Revenge is inadmissible," ^{Science and Health, p. 22.} Mrs. Eddy writes in the Christian Science textbook. The way of fulfillment is forgiveness.

We can rest assured that whatever has been found fulfilling in individual experience or as a cultural custom will be purified and uplifted by spiritual progress. Fulfillment comes by God's grace never failing to be available where we are, and never failing to unfold progressively. Changing times cannot limit possibilities for increased good to be experienced on earth.

Today many young people are wrestling with questions regarding whether their lives will be more enriched, and their contribution to society greater, through raising a family or building other careers. As couples work this out together, they will find fulfillment where it lies—in purer affections. They will not depend on any circumstance to fulfill their lives, or fear they will lead barren, unproductive lives even if a wrong decision appears to be made.

There is no one human way for the greatest good to be achieved in any area of experience. But Christ is ever present in human consciousness, telling us of God's will and its fulfillment on earth. "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God," this Christly voice is ever saying, "to them who are the called according to his purpose." ^{Rom. 8:28.}

God's purposes are fulfilled on earth, but never by earthly means. We discern the heavenly means more clearly as our love for God, for Life, grows. This is the way of progressive fulfillment. It is the way in which Christ always leads us. We can trust its spiritual urgings and not be afraid to follow. Christianity can accomplish so much more; Christians can lead lives so much more fulfilled.

BEULAH M. ROEGGE