The importance and power of enlightened public opinion and the responsibility of the individual voter constitute themes much emphasized in the more advanced democracies of today. Nonetheless, who has not sometimes felt helpless and ineffective in the face of the stupendous international developments of the present era? Young people may feel particularly frustrated when they view the limited range of their own activities against the rapidly moving tide of world events and may long to make some really worth-while contribution to the general welfare. The understanding of Christian Science, which rests upon the Bible, especially the words and works of Christ Jesus, qualifies one to do this.

In the first place, Christian Science reveals that the state of world affairs is not merely affected by public opinion; it is the externalized thinking of mankind, and is good or bad, harmonious or discordant, proportionately as that thinking becomes individually and collectively Christlike and God-governed or debased by the animal tendencies of blind materialism. In the second place, Christian Science reveals that in the world around us, that is, in our consciousness of existence, only that which expresses or reflects God—Spirit, Principle, Love—is real, true, or living. Anything that appears evil or material must therefore be illusion, the sometimes very plausible but always lying denial of God and His spiritual universe, including man.

From this it clearly follows that we do not have to embark upon the heart-rending, exhausting, and wholly impossible task of making a naughty world good. Our part is always that of quietly, faithfully, and persistently so claiming and accepting that Mind which was in Christ Jesus that we come to realize ever more clearly the illusive nature of materiality and to demonstrate the substantiality and reality of that which expresses Life, Truth—God. Whether our place seems to be at the kitchen sink, on the land, at the office desk, or in the conference hall, we can do our part to reflect the spiritual discernment which alone can dispel the illusions of material sense and reveal the ever-present harmony and perfection of the kingdom of heaven.

A limited, personal sense of goodness would, however, divert us from working out individual or general problems in this effective, scientific way. It would have us rush out and get busy humanly, just as it drove Moses to kill the Egyptian in his first misguided human effort to help his fellow countrymen. That great leader and prophet had to spend forty years in the wilderness guarding his father-in-law's sheep before this human will, or personal sense of goodness, yielded to the consciousness of his unity with the divine omnipresence and omnipotence. Then, and only then, was he ready to lift the thoughts of the children of Israel to a more spiritual sense of existence and to lead them under God's guidance to the promised land.

It is well to remember the implications of this Bible record if one is tempted to meet the suggestion of humdrum ineffectiveness by pitching headlong into some other merely human activity. The problem must first be met in individual consciousness, which is, in fact, the only place where it can even claim to exist. Much coming and going has never yet established the awareness of man's oneness with God as His idea. But established this must first be if the individual is effectively to express the divine qualities of his true being and help shape the thought of the world aright.

The quiet study of the Bible, as illumined by "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, especially the study of the weekly Lesson-Sermon from the Christian Science Quarterly, gradually dispels the false, material conviction of being an isolated, helpless mortal by revealing the spiritual fact that God, Mind, expresses Himself through man, His immortal spiritual idea. When this conscious self-identification with the divine purpose of universal Love to express itself has begun to replace somewhat the mortal misconception of being, to that extent are satisfying, God-directed activities found.

World thought is inevitably leavened by the healing and regeneration of each individual. Our Leader did not, however, let the matter rest there. She wrote on page 467 of Science and Health: "It should be thoroughly understood that all men have one Mind, one God and Father, one Life, Truth, and Love. Mankind will become perfect in proportion as this fact becomes apparent, war will cease and the true brotherhood of man will be established." Throughout her writings she urges her students to apply their growing power of discrimination between material falsity and spiritual reality as faithfully to world conditions as to more intimate problems. The Manual of The Mother Church even includes By-Laws specifically insisting upon this vital duty of its members.

Here then is an answer to the longing really to help mankind: it is to include all men in our affirmations of the truth, in our growing understanding of the presence of spiritual reality, now no longer the distant promised land of Moses' day, but the kingdom of God within us, within our true selfhood.

Describing his vision of the final establishment of this heavenly kingdom in human consciousness, Jesus' beloved disciple wrote (Rev. 21:1, 2): "I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away. ... And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven." It is to this declaration that our Leader refers when she writes on page 91 of Science and Health, "The Revelator tells us of a new heaven and a new-earth.'" And then she poses the challenging question, "Have you ever pictured this heaven and earth, inhabited by beings under the control of supreme wisdom?" Hundreds of times in a single day the very opposite picture is presented to us by material sense for acceptance. The honest conviction and moral strength necessary to reject this false picture with authority can only be derived from the constant realization of the truths of being so beautifully revealed to this generation by Mrs. Eddy, the beloved Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science.

When disruptive material elements seem very evident and general despondency rife, it is immensely good to know just what each one can do about it through Christian Science and to be able to turn from the tumult and dwell with gratitude upon the ever-swelling volume of individual right knowing which is steadily and triumphantly at work in the world today. As the Apostle Paul wrote (II Cor. 10:4), "The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds."