A Christian Science lecturer once recommended that his hearers study the word yield with the help of the Concordances to the Bible and the writings of Mary Baker Eddy. Following this counsel, the writer was almost amazed at the unfoldment that took place in her thought. Wonderful spiritual progress accompanied a clearer understanding of how to let go of the material and yield to the divine.

Our beloved Leader says in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 151): "All that really exists is the divine Mind and its idea, and in this Mind the entire being is found harmonious and eternal. The straight and narrow way is to see and acknowledge this fact, yield to this power, and follow the leadings of truth." When we actually acknowledge and yield to the fact that God is All-in-all, omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, infinite, and that man is His idea, we find a sense of power otherwise unobtainable. A hymn says, "His is the power by which we act." God expresses all that He is through man, so man is dependent on God for everything. All the substance, strength, health, and intelligence man has he reflects from God.

Error would demand that we recognize materiality as real, but to demonstrate Christian Science we must give up false beliefs as to matter's reality. We must give place in our consciousness to Truth and prove that only Spirit, only good, is real and true. We must let go of falsity, see its utter nothingness, and yield to the spiritual facts, yield to God's allness and the ever-presence and omnipotence of good. As we study Christian Science we see how preposterous error's claims are. Evil is not a reality to array itself against irresistible infinitude.

"Thy will be done," says the Lord's Prayer. God's will, the highest and greatest good that could possibly come, is done. As we yield meekly to God's gracious will, we gain the strength of which Mrs. Eddy writes in "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" (p. 121): "In metaphysics we learn that the strength of peace and of suffering is sublime, a true, tried mental conviction that is neither tremulous nor relapsing. This strength is like the ocean, able to carry navies, yet yielding to the touch of a finger." Does not this simile remind us of God's mighty power, able to care for us in the least as well as the greatest needs?

We read in the Scriptures (Rom. 6:16), "Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?" When we give way to the temptation to sin, we yield to a suggestion to accept evil as real and to align ourselves with it. Mankind does not in general realize that to be ill or to accept lack or discord is also a temptation, and that such a temptation must be resisted with Truth. Christian Science shows that we never yield to error except through fear or choice. Material sense tempts us to believe in evil, because material sense cannot discern Truth. As we learn to see from the standpoint of spiritual sense, material sense must see its falsity and forever disappear. It must yield to God's ever-presence.

A student of Christian Science had been working for a long time on the problem of a place for business purposes, with little or no result. After diligent study she saw that she was praying that things should work out in a certain way. She realized the error of this outlining. She began instead to recognize how beautiful, how vast, how bountiful, are God's gifts to man, and how safe one is in yielding himself to God's omniscient care. She saw that God "is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think" (Eph. 3:20). Yielding up all belief in error as having power to hide God, good, from her, and humbly praying, "Thy will be done," she saw the whole problem yield to Truth's power in a beautiful and unexpected way. Desirable premises, not the place she thought she wanted, but a far better one, were secured, and many were blessed.

A human plan may seem good in all respects from a material standpoint, but divine Love's will far exceeds mortal man's expectation of good. We cannot plan or even glimpse the glory God has for His highest idea, man, any more than we can plan the beauty of the lily. We cannot force the unfoldment of God's plan any more than we can make a bud bloom by prying it open. "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow," said Jesus. As the bud yields to the sun's warm rays and opens into a perfect flower, so let us yield to the sunshine of Love, which will unfold God's full and perfect expression. Nothing can stop the coming of spring or the blooming of the flowers. Nothing can interfere with God's expression of Himself.

To yield to Truth we must first of all be willing to do so. Arguing a point, contending for what we willfully think is right, limits our progress and obscures God's plan. In Mrs. Eddy's poem "Christ and Christmas" we read (p. 27),

 The picture that illustrates this stanza shows how the Christ-light dispels the darkness of disease in human consciousness when Truth is realized. Truth's appearing is the coming of the Comforter, and to yield to this gentle presence brings joy and healing untold to "you and me."