Christian Scientists understand that decisive improvement in human conditions is always a present possibility, and they see just what is required for proof of this fact on any occasion. It is that men should awaken more fully to the quality of intelligence which, in reality, is theirs. For their intelligence actually is not limited, as it seems, but infinite and perfect. Their mind is the divine Mind, or God, whose nature it is to exclude all ignorance, incompetence, disease, want, aggression, enmity—whatever is unlike itself—and to behold and demonstrate the perfection of being.

It has been found continually that as men realize through Science that God is their Mind, their difficulties and distresses disappear. Their personal limitations are thus overcome, and what has seemed to be lack or insufficiency of needful things outside themselves is at the same time corrected. And it is obvious in Science that similar results are available by the same means in all the affairs of mankind, including the present war.

How such changes can come about through mental or spiritual awakening is made wholly plain in Christian Science. One's human self is not one's real selfhood, but a limited and erroneous concept of what one actually is. For each individual, it is the mistaken view that he has of himself—real selfhood in every instance being the likeness of God, the perfect expression of intelligence, forever complete and satisfied, forever one with all good. So also the useful material things in one's experience are not what they seem to be, but only one's limited concepts of good, which really is omnipresent, infinite, and inseparable from oneself. In other words, the limitation which one sees, whether in himself, in others, or in any aspect of the world about him, is not real but only a false sense of being which he has accepted. It follows that as his consciousness is clarified and uplifted by the recognition of Truth, as it takes on more of the character of divine intelligence, his view of himself, of others, and of the ever-present abundance of good are correspondingly improved.

Christ Jesus was undoubtedly urging recognition of this fact when he said, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." He had been speaking of desirable material things, especially of food and clothing. And he saw that they must appear naturally and adequately as men drew near to God and His righteousness. The appearing would seem to men to be the appearing of material things, and it would be that for all ordinary practical purposes, but it would be in fact the appearing of a state of consciousness more like reality, divine Life, Truth, and Love, in which there is no lack. The improved mental state would bring the needed improvement in human conditions.

That it is possible to have such a change of conditions suddenly, and against all materialistic expectation, began to be evident very early in human history. In the desert of Zin, where Moses and his followers had no water, the Hebrew leader smote the rock in obedience to God's command—in compliance, that is to say, with reality as far as he discerned it—and the water flowed abundantly. The fact that man as God's likeness cannot lack was thus quickly illustrated to the multitude.

Christ Jesus continually produced such evidences in times of crisis. He was not dismayed when thousands about him in the wilderness were found to have no food. He saw that man, being one with Mind, could not be without what he needed, that he expressed forever the affluence of Mind, and the truth thus discerned was immediately evidenced in the appearing of ample food. Similarly the restoration of Lazarus in one quick treatment, the prompt provision of tax money from the fish's mouth, the instantaneous transit of a ship from the midst of the sea to shore, showed the immeasurable power of divine intelligence as reflected in man.

Christian Science reveals unmistakably that the same intelligence is present and no less available today. Through the earnest and righteous prayers of men, and the resulting righteous actions, it can do all that needs to be done for the benefit of mankind. This infinite divine intelligence knows that man, as its manifestation, is not at war, that he is forever unchallenged, forever expressing the power and peace of Mind; and whatever is necessary for proof of this fact, for establishment of the reign of righteousness and harmony on earth, this intelligence assuredly makes possible. If exceptional generalship or management is required, it is certainly and immediately available through realization of man's oneness with Mind. If outstanding use of known strategies is needed, or the development of unheard-of new strategies, one is as possible as the other. If new types of equipment are necessary, these also are obtainable by the same means—equipment, if need be, which will be found as superior to the tank and the airplane of today as these are superior to the crossbow.

And if what to human sense would seem even more difficult is required, namely, a greater access of spiritual unity and power than the world has yet known, this also is possible, and possible without delay. The need is only that men more truly find themselves, and the intelligence which is natural for them. "Know thyself," the beloved Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, declares (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 571), "and God will supply the wisdom and the occasion for a victory over evil."

And in this work of true recognition, anyone anywhere can play a great and much-needed part in world affairs. For in the measure that any individual realizes, on behalf of himself and others, man's oneness with infinite intelligence, he brings forth the evidence of that oneness.

Alfred Pittman