MUCH of the fear which deceives and defrauds men and nations arises from belief in and desire for material possessions. A large part of the evil committed in the world, whether war, robbery, murder, fraud, or social oppression, is for the sake of gaining material things or personal power. What then is true substance, and wherein does it differ from so-called material substance?

God is Spirit. Consequently, the only substance is Spirit; nothing that is material is truly substantial; that is, real. Error may raise the question as to whether or not the things which contribute to the subsistence of human society are to be considered nothing? To this, Truth replies: All reality is Spirit and its spiritual idea or reflection.

Christian Science shows us how we can differentiate between the real and the unreal. On page 123 of the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, states that "Divine Science, rising above physical theories, excludes matter, resolves things into thoughts, and replaces the objects of material sense with spiritual ideas." This points to the difference between false and true concepts. The real man is forever separate from belief in material substance. Since man is spiritual, and Spirit and matter can never be united, so the desire for material possessions is a mortal error, a "vexation of Spirit," as the Preacher says. Belief in material possession is self-deception, and it makes one the servant of fear, of sin and death.

The real man is never separated from Spirit, God, infinite good. Since he is created in the likeness of God, he possesses the freedom of eternal Life. For it is God, eternal Life, which sustains all true substance.

In his epistle to the Galatians, Paul makes a very clear statement of how to gain true possessions, when he says, "If ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise," adding, "When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, . . . that we might receive the adoption of sons. . . . Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ." As children and heirs of God, we accept the truth revealed through Christ Jesus. Thus we lay hold of true possessions.

The centuries which preceded the appearing of the Saviour witnessed the human struggle toward the light. And the illumined inspirations of the prophets prepared the way for this appearing. Christ Jesus said of the Mosaic law, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil." Also, the periods following the appearing of the Saviour lost sight of his revelation of the truth. To be sure, the longing for salvation was roused, but not satisfied. The question, What is man? has to be answered before men can understand what they want to be saved from, and what is the meaning and object of salvation. This question is answered in our age through Christian Science, which reveals the real man as the perfect likeness of God, and calls upon everyone to behold in this relationship the life which reflects Life, God, and to set one's entire desire on that. At the same time it explains, and enables everyone to prove, that Christ, Truth, demonstrated by the Saviour, is present, aiding us every moment in this holy work.

Christian Science gives us a complete revelation of the nature of God and man, of the Saviour's work and of the Saviour's work and of salvation, and thereby enables us to purify our desire to attain the harmony of true being. Mrs. Eddy says (Science and Health, p. 1), "Desire is prayer." Thus, only that desire is justified and crowned with fulfillment which brings to light our inseparable sonship with God. She continues, "And no loss can occur from trusting God with our desires, that they may be moulded and exalted before they tale form in words and in deeds." The more humbly we trust our desires to our all-loving Father, the purer they become, and the more clearly is discerned the true man who is the image and likeness of his Maker.

Jesus turned men to the examination of their desires. He endeavored to draw them away from temporal things, by numerous parables showing the nothingness of these things and the glory of spiritual possessions. It was a tremendous thing to guide desire away from matter to spiritual reality, and to awaken faith in God.

No rest is found in false longing. One must turn one's gaze to divine reality and learn to see it more clearly. Clearer and clearer must become his discernment; and with discernment his desire will turn from the temporal, the fleeting and selfish, to the eternal, the lasting, the universal—to true being. In this striving for true possessions, good and noble qualities unfold. It is a school of self-abnegation and selflessness. It causes to spring up among men virtue, morality, self-sacrifice; it gives evidence of the readiness to help the whole world.

Before the appearing of Christ Jesus, true spiritual possessions remained hidden. But now, through Christian Science, the gospel of divine Love has brought to light eternal Life, and has given to all men power, according to the measure of their understanding, to gain the true possession of eternal good and to leave the bondage of the flesh.

Spiritual possessions can never arouse selfish desire. Neither envy, covetousness, avarice, nor jealousy, can attach themselves to these possessions, which are common to all. Whoever turns to the true view of being takes leave of the false sense of possession, knowing that thereby he loses nothing, but wins everything.

Christian Science, which reveals the nature of man and his relation to God, also discloses so clearly the nothingness of all that is ungodly, that false desire vanishes from the seeker's consciousness. He longs only for that which is good and eternal, and finds his true self "an heir of God through Christ."