In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mrs. Eddy, after quoting Jesus' words, "The kingdom of God is within you," brings home to the reader the wonderful truth that this spiritual consciousness of omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent good is "a present possibility" (pp. 573, 574). There is, perhaps, nothing more difficult for the student of Christian Science to grasp than this, since the human mind has looked so continually to the future for the assurance of surcease from pain, discord, and sorrow, and to death as a means of release from weariness or affliction, and has regarded it as being the portal through which all must pass before either heaven or immortality could be gained.

Pope crystallized this though of a future and therefore logically unattainable blessedness, in his well-known line, "Man never is, but always to be blest." This mortal mind belief has largely governed humanity, insomuch that fear, doubt, anxiety, and kindred errors have grown apace in human consciousness. Every attempt to go forward, and to lay hold of the good desired and sought after, has shown the goal still farther away, still out of reach in that far-off future which, like tomorrow, never comes. It is this material view of life and its conditions which, like the mirage of the desert, has appeared to mankind as all that is desirable and necessary to satisfy human craving and human need, but which proves ever elusive, and ever promises but never fulfils. It lures us to believe, through the testimony of the material senses, that death stands in the pathway to life eternal, instead perfection learning through spiritual discernment that the well of life-giving water is ever at hand, even in the wilderness of human hopes and fears.

Christian Science, with its recovered message of peace on earth, declares in unmistakable terms that now is the time for discord of every kind to be overcome by truth. Mrs. Eddy has taught us that "the true sense of being and its eternal perfection should appear now, even as it will hereafter" (Science and Health, p. 550). It is to this end that, as Christian Scientists, we are called upon to work daily and hourly; to know for ourselves and others that there is only one Ego, one Mind, and that man in His image and likeness reflects this Mind; that although mortal mind claims to create its own physical conditions, it is in reality no mind, has no entity, and cannot deprive man of his inalienable rights, the inheritance of good, of perfect harmony. It is our to know that we cannot suffer for doing what it is our duty to do, since omnipotence preserves us from all evil, that we are safe and well eternally, under all circumstances, under all conditions, when dwelling under the law of Love, as we needs must, and from which nothing and no one can separate us. As some one has said,—

perfect health, perfect harmony, perfect peace, and that nothing short of this is the reality of being.

As we progress in the understanding of Christian Science, we see more and more clearly how every problem presented to us is already solved in divine Mind. In holding steadfastly to the things that are pure, lovely, good, and true, we are living to some extent in the consciousness of the eternal now, which embraces the past, the present, and the future of human concept. The sense of limitation of time, especially of the time which mortal belief has falsely declared must come between us and the attainment of good, whether physical, moral, or mental, drops away in proportion to our faithfulness in endeavoring to turn these laws of time limitation out, and this leaves our mental home free to entertain and to foster a higher spiritual understanding of ever-present Love and its reflection. Only in this way can we realize the import of the words, "Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation." It were well, too, if we all devoted some special thought to this matter in connection with the progress, the growth, the knowledge, and the acceptance of Christian Science. When the thought that some person is not yet ready to receive the truth; that a community is slow, or unwilling to see it; or that a place or a district is full of antagonism, presents itself, let us be prompt to meet and reverse every intimation of error with the mental affirmation that all God's ideas are ready for the truth now, and that Truth is always operative.

Another point of great moment in our effort to conform to the teaching of Christian Science, is that we do whatever work is presented to us now. It may be that some form of error has been uncovered to us in our own consciousness. Should this be so, we have no time to lose in meeting and destroying it with Truth. When others come to us for help in overcoming sin or sickness, our Leader has shown us, both by example and precept, how necessary it is to prevent false belief of any kind from finding foothold in our thought even for a moment. Were we always alert in this direction, there would be quicker healing done. There are few of us who have not learned by experience that to put off, even for a few hours, working against some physical ill which may have arisen, doubles, or perhaps quadruples, the amount of work to be done before harmony is restored. In Science work it is well to avoid the "when I have a convenient season" of the trembling Felix, remembering that the demands of Truth are imperative now.

Following in the footsteps of Christ Jesus, we also learn how essential it is to keep heart and mind filled with the spirit of praise and thankfulness now. In his prayers, and in his demonstrations of the power and might of the heavenly Father, Jesus ever began by naturally and spontaneously expressing loving gratitude. This we must do also. Here, again, mortal mind and material testimony would have us withhold the expression of our thanks until the good we desire is manifested, at least in part. Christian Science, on the other hand, teaches us that only as we follow the Master's example and rise to heartfelt spontaneity of praise and thanksgiving here and now, rejoicing evermore in the affluence and in the unchanging love of the Father, can we grasp the blessing desired. To do this, even in some measure, is to see with the beloved disciple something of that heavenly city which, standing in the light of Mind, knows no darkness. Turning to our Leader's explanation of the metaphysical signification of a circle or sphere as representing the infinite without beginning or end, we gain some insight into what it means to dwell continually in the consciousness of good, where night never falls on the eternal today. It is the unfolding of God's day in our heart which fills us with joy unspeakable as we realize that the "irradiance of Life" (Science and Health, p. 584), whether we seem to see it or not, is enveloping us even now.