Daily newspapers have recently given considerable publicity to the question of mental therapy as a means of promoting world health and world peace. It is recognized by the mental therapists that an unstable and chaotic condition of mortal thinking is the cause of world unrest, and they propose to promote a stabilized and reasonable outlook through education and propaganda. They believe that if better human relationships could be established between individuals and nations, a more co-operative plan of life could be worked out, and a satisfactory sense of health and security would result. The intention of the therapists is good, but the means suggested are material and not spiritual.

The idea of employing the human mind to dispel fear or to adjust a mental maladjustment has often resulted in a babel of confusion instead of a reign of concord. It will be remembered that on the occasion of the building of the tower of Babel, the builders, unmindful of the fact that "the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech" (Gen. 11:1), began to erect a colossal structure of bricks and mud with the object of reaching heaven, or in other words, of securing their unity. The higher they built, the more top-heavy their tower became, until presumably it fell, and great indeed must have been its downfall. More disastrous than the failure of the building was the confusion which followed, for we are told that "the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city."

From the point of view of material reasoning, the building of the tower of Babel may have appeared to be a laudable enterprise. People were getting together. They were co-operating. But actually it was fear which impelled them to exercise the ingenuity of the carnal mind to erect a material structure. They believed in minds many and endeavored to find harmony by building with human knowledge from a material basis.

Are not any attempts to establish health, peace, and unity doomed unless the motive is spiritual? Examined in the light of Christian Science, the carnal, or mortal, mind is ignorant of the divine Principle and therefore knows nothing of the spiritual basis and unity upon which creation rests. The understanding of man as God's likeness is not discerned through the human, material senses but through reason and revelation, for as Christian Science points out, right reasoning must begin with God. In the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mary Baker Eddy writes (p. 492), "For right reasoning there should be but one fact before the thought, namely, spiritual existence." However laudable the intention to promote peace and health by materially mental means, any attempt will be futile unless God, the divine Principle, the one Mind, of which man is the reflection, is accepted as the premise from which all conclusions are drawn. Unless God is acknowledged and understood, there is no stable foundation for a moral or spiritual building.

Social, civil, or political codes, unless permeated with the acknowledgment of God and the acceptance of the universal spiritual brotherhood of man, have their roots in the carnal mind and have no basis or support in Deity. The Christian Scientist, through the inspired writings of his Leader, Mrs. Eddy, acknowledges one God and His Christ, or divine manifestation. The therapist endeavors to promote unity by human means, in other words, to bring perfection out of imperfection; and in the medley of minds many, like the builders of the tower of Babel, he builds upon the sands of false knowledge instead of on the Rock, Christ.

On the other hand, the Christian Scientist reaches his solution through prayer based on spiritual discernment and understanding of the truth concerning God and man. He does not merely assert or believe that the reality of being is perfect and spiritual. He understands it to be so because the Scriptures declare it, and through his own demonstration he is able to prove it.

The basic truth that man is God's image and likeness can be demonstrated by any sincere student of Christian Science. For instance, a distinguished diplomat, a Christian Scientist, once told the writer that on one occasion he found himself a member of an important international conference in which dissension and ill will were evident. To attain agreement in such circumstances seemed humanly impossible. As a Christian Scientist, however, he did not accept this belief, but taking the first opportunity to separate himself from the general assembly, he approached the situation through prayer. Quietly, and with confidence in God as the only Mind and man as God's image and likeness, he realized the inability of minds many to hide the spiritual unity of God's creation, in which the children of God work as one harmonious family. He realized that God being ever present, the truth which would solve this problem was present and could be discerned through the reflection of divine wisdom. Presently the Christian Scientist saw the situation change. Good will became evident, and following naturally upon good will came the desire to be tolerant, reasonable, and co-operative. In such prayer is to be found the true therapy, which promotes peace, harmony, and happiness, whether in the individual, the family, or the nation.

Mrs. Eddy writes in her Message to The Mother Church for 1902 (p. 9), "The unity of God and man is not the dream of a heated brain; it is the spirit of the healing Christ, that dwelt forever in the bosom of the Father, and should abide forever in man."

Robert Ellis Key