Man is never outside the supporting arms of divine Love. This is demonstrably true because of the oneness and allness of God, divine Principle. Christ Jesus said (John 10:30), "I and my Father are one." He was the Way-shower, pointing the way to at-one-ment with our divine source, Principle, Mind. The divinely inspired revelator of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, makes it plain throughout her writings that cause and effect, God and man, are and must ever be inseparable; otherwise there would be a time when Love would be without its object, Mind without its idea, and Spirit without the image, or reflection, of God.

The logical conclusion to these unalterable truths, therefore, is that man does not change from a material to a spiritual selfhood. He does not grow from mortality into immortality. He does not pass through a stage of metamorphosis; that is, he does not emerge out of what once was a material both into a spiritual body. Man has never been less than the idea of God, divine Life.

It is our awakening to man's heritage through spiritual understanding of God and His universe which enables us to shake off false material concepts about God and man. Thus we increasingly learn more about our real individuality, our real spiritual selfhood. Mrs. Eddy writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 505): "Spiritual sense is the discernment of spiritual good. Understanding is the line of demarcation between the real and unreal." So as we spiritualize our thinking, we acquire a higher sense of that which is real and lose the material or mortal sense of things. Only thus are we able to grasp the divine law of being and our true identity as the son of God.

It is as necessary and important to understand that evil is unreal and therefore false as it is to accept the fact that God, divine Truth, is the only reality and therefore wholly true. Through the study of Christian Science our spiritualized thought gradually rejects the delusion of any possible two-part creation, matter and Spirit, evil and good. In our expanding sense of the allness and ever-presence of God, the one Mind, we gain proportionably a clearer realization of the utter nothingness of matter and its supposititious creator, mortal mind.

The infinitude of Spirit, Life, is eternally expressed in its universe, including man. Where man is, there are the intelligence and discernment of Mind, the protection and guidance of Love, the courage and supremacy of Spirit, the unerring law and stability of Principle, the power and capacity of Truth, the beauty and substance of Soul, the vitality and buoyancy of Life. Fortifying our faith through spiritual understanding enables us to acknowledge God as indivisible, and to perceive in a larger degree than before the ever-presence of His love and goodness. Thus we are less and less deceived by the belief that God's idea, man, is ever alone, fearful, dismayed, or that he is sick or the victim of uncontrollable habits.

The realization of the Scriptural statement (John 1:3), "All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made," is followed by the continued disappearance from our experience of inharmony of whatever nature. Mrs. Eddy assures us (Science and Health, p. 480), "If sin, sickness, and death were understood as nothingness, they would disappear."

Since the one God, divine Principle, infinitely expresses His changeless indivisibility in man, it follows that man does not experience good part of the time and evil the balance of the time. The good which man expresses, the love which he reflects, and the intelligence which he manifests never cease. Man's life is not marked by periods of failure and success. The uninterrupted perfection of Mind is manifested in the minutiae of man's existence; therefore no material condition, situation, circumstance, or law has any effect or bearing upon man's harmony, supply, or ability.

Failure seems to enter our human experience because we accept evil's suggestion that life and intelligence are in matter. Man can have only the good of successful achievement, because God has nothing less to give. God knows nothing about material success, but only perfect and complete activity. God is conscious of the inexhaustibility of Love and the supremacy of its presence. This fact the Christ reveals to men. "Christ," Mrs. Eddy tells us (ibid., p. 332), "is the true idea voicing good, the divine message from God to men speaking to the human consciousness."

The awakening from the darkness of false material beliefs into the light of spiritual being brings with it the joy of true happiness, the bliss of real harmony, and freedom from all fear. Through this awakening to ever-present good— man's heritage—coming hourly and momentarily, we gain a higher concept of our Father-Mother God and more clearly discern our true selfhood. This constitutes the ever-appearing of the Christ to us—the Christ, revealing God's ideal man, always at hand, waiting for our recognition and acceptance. And where the Christ is, there is healing.