On page 294 of "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany," Mary Baker Eddy has written that if the Master were with us today, "he would mightily rebuke a single doubt of the ever-present power of divine Spirit to control all the conditions of man and the universe."

It was the mission of Christ Jesus to proclaim and establish the consciousness of Spirit's control in all the affairs of men. He came to teach humanity the true meaning of control; to show them that the control which they had exercised could be replaced by the divine will; that the spiritual control which belonged to them, but of which they were ignorant, could be restored; that the law of God was not remote and inaccessible, but present now in the Christ-message of redemption and healing. In Luke we read, "Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures to day and to morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected."

Jesus found a world in which man's heritage of divine control had its counterfeit in domination and tyranny, in defenselessness and confusion; a world which, having usurped the prerogative of Spirit, had imposed upon itself the limitations and blind forces of human will. He found mortals suffering under the illusion that they were at the mercy of superstitions and limitations which they called laws, and from which, not comprehending the delivering law of Spirit, they believed they were unable to escape.

Into this world of submission to disease and disaster, to cruelty and to fear, Christ Jesus brought the light of Truth, which, wherever he went, was immediately available to overcome the uncontrol of disease with the divine control of health; the uncontrol of sin, of hatred, of lack, of violence, with the divine control of virtue, of loving-kindness, of abundance, and of peace. In this way he restored sight, hearing, normal action, and sanity of thought, of which the individual believed he had lost control. In every instance of healing, by every miracle he performed, the Messiah was proving that it was the divine control of Spirit he brought into action on their behalf. In three recorded instances, and finally in his own resurrection from the grave, he proved that even "the last enemy," which claims to be able to exercise inexorable control, gives way before the understanding of eternal Life.

So long as a mortal accepts the belief that his thoughts and therefore his actions are beyond his own control, that there is no refuge within the stronghold of Spirit from the terrors which surround him, so long will he be at the mercy of that which would take the place of Spirit, affecting him both mentally and physically, claiming to be able to produce inaction or overaction, reaction or diseased action, according as the suggestion may be.

The control which Jesus taught and exercised belongs to and is available to those whose thoughts and actions are the outcome of prayer and spiritual illumination. As the Christian Scientist understands the universality of "the ever-present power of divine Spirit to control all the conditions of man and the universe," he no longer believes himself to be living in a universe made up of false laws on the one hand and lawlessness on the other, over which he has no control; he no longer accepts the arguments that he is, or at any time may be, at the mercy of temperament or constitution, of disease or accident; he no longer fears that some chronic or acute situation may arise which is able to rob him of his happiness and his peace. He learns that the sufferings and misfortunes of which men seem often the helpless and inexplicable victims, are no part of divine Love's plan. "The human mind," we read on page 151 of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, "has no power to kill or to cure, and it has no control over God's man." Thus does Christian Science teach the individual to lose his fear of a control which would sometimes dominate and sometimes utterly forsake him, and find his true spiritual selfhood, wherein Spirit's government is supreme.

May we, in the way that our beloved Leader has taught us, be continually alert to rebuke, not the individual, whether ourselves or another, but the argument, often subtle and specious, which claims to exercise control, where all control belongs to God. By means of this watchfulness and fidelity we shall enter upon larger undertakings as on lesser ones, undisturbed; we shall meet what may appear to be the most aggressive forms of evil, without alarm, knowing that the one Mind is at the helm, and that nothing which may seem to happen to us is ever out of Mind's control. In this consciousness of the ever-presence of Spirit, we shall prove increasingly true those words on page 319 of our textbook, "Mystery, miracle, sin, and death will disappear when it becomes fairly understood that the divine Mind controls man and man has no Mind but God."

Evelyn F. Heywood