The writer will never forget that when Christian Science was first brought to her attention she was advised to read carefully the first chapter of Genesis in the Bible and the chapter entitled "Genesis" in the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy.

All Bible students are familiar with the first chapter of the Scriptures. It was, however, Mrs. Eddy who revealed that which to students of Christian Science is obvious today, namely, that there could not actually be two creations, but one only, the spiritual. Whereas the first record describes the spiritual creation, the one given in the second chapter, beginning with verse six, describes the material. One explains the true, divine creation, the other expounds the false, material view. One speaks of life, immortality, bliss; the other of doubt, despondency, mortality. Mrs. Eddy made it clear that the first chapter had to be rightly understood.

A Christian Science practitioner was led at one time, when a patient came to him for relief from his many problems, to refer him to the record of God's creation wherein it is said (Gen. 1:31), "And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good."

"Is there any place in this record," the practitioner asked, "where mention is made of your ills?" The patient admitted that there was not. "Then," continued the practitioner, "you can joyfully thank God that there is no reality in them." When the patient was made to see that none of his complaints could be of God's creating, he experienced the needed healing and comfort.

A woman recently testified that she had been healed of an acute eye trouble. The student to whom she applied for help in Christian Science turned to the Bible with the prayer that God would guide her to the truth that would overcome the error. "Where is sight mentioned for the first time in the Scriptures?" she reasoned. Opening to the fourth verse of the first chapter, she read, "And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness." The student realized that perfect God had created a perfect universe, including man. Instantly she felt an indescribable joy at recognizing God's guidance. She became aware of the certainty that only a harmonious manifestation could prevail, since "God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good;" therefore spiritual discernment is of God. This realization brought immediate relief and complete healing. A right concept of creation had enabled the student to prove the words (John 1:3), "All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made."

The privilege of the Christian Scientist is to initiate newcomers who are eager to learn more about this religion into the basic truths of God and man. It may be wise to point out at the very beginning the meaning of the first record of creation with its magnificent declaration of man's dominion "over all the earth." He may show also the falsity of the dust-to-dust theory of the second record, a mythological interpretation resulting in error, hatred, and death. What is more comforting than to know that God has made man in His image? A burden literally falls off one's shoulders, and hope, joy, and eager expectancy of good give wings to thought and quicken the desire to live a life of usefulness and joy.

Christian Science is an unfailing guide, sustaining and strengthening us. It is freeing us from temptation and preserving us from falling. Science enables us to attain the absolute perfection in which God eternally maintains His children.

In these days of world unrest many seek a solution for the seemingly baffling problems that confront them. They long not for ease in matter, but for consecrated, happy activity, for a life divinely inspired and enriched by the understanding and demonstration of the spiritual and eternal realities of being. If the desire for the establishment of the kingdom of heaven on earth is paramount in the thought of Christian Scientists, they can glimpse Truth and prove its power over error of every kind.

It has been the privilege of the writer to experience in a measure the "Science and peace" to which Mrs. Eddy refers on page 96 of Science and Health, where she writes: "This material world is even now becoming the arena for conflicting forces. On one side there will be discord and dismay; on the other side there will be Science and peace." During trying world conditions she has been demonstrating peace and harmony not only for herself, but also for those with whom she comes in contact and who are ready to listen to the truth of Christian Science. This beautiful passage never fails to strengthen her thought (ibid., p. 521): "The harmony and immortality of man are intact. We should look away from the opposite supposition that man is created materially, and turn our gaze to the spiritual record of creation, to that which should be engraved on the understanding and heart 'with the point of a diamond' and the pen of an angel."