We read in the Bible that many years ago a message was sent to the children of men. It came to humble shepherds, as they kept their flocks by night, announcing "on earth peace." This peace had always been present, but men needed to have it shown to them. And so at this time a child was born who was to demonstrate by his life how to obtain this peace, which indeed passeth the understanding of the materially wise and intellectual.

Jesus, as he grew to manhood, realized more and more that the real universe in which we live is the perfect one which God created; and he went about proving this. The rule of perfection—perfect God, man, and universe—has never been made void or changed; and Jesus knew this. But those around him were experiencing a material dream of sin, sickness, and death, and from this dream he had come to awaken them.

Nothing could take away his joy and peace, for he was awake to God's loving presence everywhere. As he went about rousing the people to the truth of being, the dark illusions of inharmony disappeared, and the peace of perfection dawned. Thus they were healed and comforted.

Wonderful and beautiful as were the results of his realization of man's perfection, Jesus knew that his was a double mission: to show his neighbors, and those who came to him for help, the fruits of his right thinking in healing; and to be an example of peaceful, perfect living, in order that men might be willing to prove the truth for themselves, according to his inspired directions, in all time to come.

Although this vision was obscured for many years after Jesus' time by counterfeit beliefs set forth as the truth, we have with us today the same Christ, Truth, which Jesus taught and lived, for it has been discovered again by one who was pure enough to see beyond the dream of material mentality, the truth of being, first for herself, and then for the world, giving her revelation to us through the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." This messenger, Mary Baker Eddy, never turned her gaze from the straight and narrow path of the rule of perfection after it was revealed to her; and this led her to place her discovery before us in the practical form seen today in the Christian Science movement.

Following the example of the Master, as it unfolded to her, our Leader continually turned to God for guidance, and claimed as real nothing but that which comes from the creator, the Father, whom Jesus called "your Father" and "my Father." Thus through understanding she felt the underlying peace promised by Jesus when he said. "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you." Indeed, it is not the world's peace, for that peace means ease in matter, false hopes and pleasures dependent upon material living. No; the peace of perfection comes only as these material concepts of existence are exchanged for spiritual and permanent truth. Their destruction often seems like conflict instead of peace, but this is only a phase of the dream from which we are all destined to awaken.

Christ Jesus knew his oneness with God and claimed his birthright of harmony because of this, and we need to follow his example closely. When we know our unity with our Father we can simply and confidingly turn to this one and only source of all good for any and all supply, and on every occasion of need—thus losing our false sense of selfhood apart from Him. The Master said, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect;" and again, "Love thy neighbour as thyself." How can we love our neighbor—see him as God sees him—while denying that perfection is the rule of man's being? Mrs. Eddy adds to our certainty of this spiritual perfection in her definition of "I, or Ego," in the Glossary of Science and Health (p. 588): "There is but one I, or Us, but one divine Principle, or Mind, governing all existence; man and woman unchanged forever in their individual characters, even as numbers which never blend with each other, though they are governed by one Principle."

To see the real spiritual selfhood of all as God sees it, does not admit of condoning the evil dreams which mortals experience; but it helps us, and others also, to waken from these illusions and see the real, the beautiful, peaceful life which God expresses through all His children. One would not condemn a person for suffering in a nightmare, but would strive to rouse him from it. There is nothing in God's Word from which to infer that He condemns or punishes man in His image and likeness, but much that proclaims the annihilation of the Adam-dream. Are we willing to continue to identify ourselves with this counterfeit mentality, and sleep on?

To one peering through a mist or fog there may seem to be danger where no danger really is. When we rise above the mists of material sense into the light of real being, we find peace and perfection, not turmoil and fear.

We are told in our textbook (Science and Health, p. 259) that "the Christlike understanding of scientific being and divine healing includes a perfect Principle and idea,—perfect God and perfect man,—as the basis of thought and demonstration." This truth of perfection was proved by a student of Christian Science when she found herself quite alone in her thinking, in a camp in France during the late war. Her religion had carried her through many hardships and temptations, but on this day there seemed no light. She felt ill and was feeling very sorry for herself, and divine Love seemed far away. Then a loving Frenchwoman, who had gone far in proving God's care, pointed out the wisdom of rising above the mists of error instead of endeavoring to beat them away; and in a very short time the student went peacefully back to her duties

The discordant physical manifestation and the seeming personal persecutions did not disappear at once, but her thought had changed its base, and she was resting above them. She did not know when the error melted away, for she was not watching it. Once more the truth of the words found on page 114 of "Miscellaneous Writings" had been proved: "Rest assured that God in His wisdom will test mankind on all questions; and then, if found faithful, He will deliver us from temptation and show us the powerlessness of evil,—even its utter nothingness."

As we change the basis of our thinking from matter to Spirit, our whole outlook is filled with light. Peace and harmony predominate, for we have gained the true sense of Life, and see ourselves and all the universe as God sees them, as He saw them when He made all that was made "and, behold, it was very good."

Copyright, 1937, by The Christian Science Publisbing Society, One, Norway Street, Boston, Massachusetts. Entered at Boston post office as second-class matter. Acceptance for mailing at a special rate of postage provided for in section 1103, Act of October 3. 1917, authorized on July 11, 1918.