Throughout the world today we see mankind burdened with responsibilities in the business world and in the home. Many are fearful and discouraged, because their wisdom and intelligence in controlling their affairs have proved inadequate, for, to them, a state of chaos instead of harmony still seems to be manifested. The breadwinner feels helpless when confronted with lack of employment, or insufficient funds with which to provide food, clothing, and shelter for loved ones.

Mankind is prone to take unto itself the cares, worries, and responsibilities of the world. Parents feel it to be their responsibility to provide all that will give joy and happiness to their children; but they frequently take on undue burdens, until they have been robbed of their own peace, happiness, and joy. Oftentimes not until material ways and means fail to bring into our experience that which we feel we need do we turn our thoughts to God. When matter fails to supply our needs and material means fail to heal, the heart cries out to Him. and then one finds that He is very near.

God's promises, as given in the Bible, bring to the sincere seeker for Truth comfort and joy when he is faced with untoward situations. In I Peter we find this promise: "Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you." The false sense of responsibility soon disappears when one realizes that he can of himself do nothing.

A consecrated study of the Bible together with the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, brings to us the knowledge that God created all perfect, including man, and that the all-powerful, ever-present, and all-intelligent Mind is forever governing His children.

In Science and Health (p. 62) Mrs. Eddy has written, "The divine Mind, which forms the bud and blossom, will care for the human body, even as it clothes the lily; but let no mortal interfere with God's government by thrusting in the laws of erring, human concepts." God's work is finished, complete; and man manifests completeness in health, harmony, love, peace, joy, activity, and abundance. God sustains that which He has created. How then can man, the image and likeness of God, good, express anything which is unlike good?

What of erroneous conditions confronting mankind today? Is the problem one of sickness, inharmony, or bondage to material laws? God has provided health for His Children, and maintains them in perfect freedom and wholeness. Is the problem one of unemployment or lack of supply? God has provided needful activity for all; and His ideas, when understood, bring the supply with which we may meet all the demands upon us. Looking inward, the earnest student of Christian Science realizes there is a continuous unfolding of spiritual ideas in his thought, and in using these he finds right activity. Thus he is enabled to procure adequately remunerated employment, and finds that his supply is ample, acceptable, and at hand when needed. Do chaos and uncertainty seem to reign in the business world? The real man reflects infinite intelligence and wisdom. Using such qualities, the business man finds he is able to conduct his business in an orderly, intelligent, and successful manner, for he has found that his only responsibility is in working out his own salvation by thinking rightly; by keeping his thoughts free from fear and anxiety; by trusting God to sustain and care for him. Do oppression, depression, hatred, and war dim his vision of God's perfect kingdom? Such conditions do not really exist, for Love, God, is omnipresent.

When one realizes he has only that which God gives, he gains increasing freedom from care, for he has brought his affairs under divine control. He realizes that God cares for all His children. He has learned the meaning of the words of the Psalmist, "Cast they burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved."

A student of Christian Science was accompanied to a Wednesday evening testimony meeting by one who was not interested in Christian Science. She found she was assuming undue responsibility by outlining the part of the service from which her friend would receive help, and by entertaining anxious thoughts lest he should not be receptive to the good given out in the meeting. She was soon aroused from this erroneous thinking by realizing that her responsibility was to work out her own salvation, and that this could be done in no other way than by keeping her own thinking filled with good, and so free from thoughts of fear and worry. She realized that she need not be fearful or concerned about anyone, since man is inseparable from God, and therefore is wholly governed and protected by divine Mind. Soon all thought of anxiety and false responsibility left her, and she was free. During the meeting the loved friend was instantaneously healed of the effects of an injury to the hand which had troubled him for many years.

Jesus healed all who came to him for healing, but that does not mean that he assumed the responsibility of the working out of the full salvation of these seekers for good. He proved that his sole responsibility was to see only good as real, thus healing erroneous conditions and proving to all mankind and for all time that God has not burdened His perfect creation with poverty, inharmony, sickness, sin, and death. Mrs. Eddy says (Science and Health, pp. 476, 477): "Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour saw God's own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick. Thus Jesus taught that the kingdom of God is intact, universal, and that man is pure and holy." She also writes (ibid., p. 30), "We cannot choose for ourselves, but must work out our salvation in the way Jesus taught."

We have but one real responsibility, and that is to be responsive to Truth and Love by expressing more love, joy, honesty, kindness; by striving to see good expressed everywhere; by thinking rightly about God and man. "The battle is not your's, but God's."