Separation is a word which may to human sense convey something in the nature of sadness and trial. Mortals are apt to be afraid of being separated from good, from their loved ones, home, work and supply, health and harmony. One does not wonder that this is so, because the carnal mind, being enmity against God, claims that man is separated from his divine source, the creator of all good. This false claim is the material conception of man and the universe, which spiritual understanding shows to be an unlovely and loveless dream. Truth, as revealed by Mary Baker Eddy in Christian Science, unveils man as the exact reflection of perfect Mind, and so absolutely one with the divine Mind; it makes known that he has no life, truth, intelligence, or substance apart from God, good. Therefore, in all plain logic, man cannot possibly know anything outside of what is included in the infinite All.

Christian Science teaches those who wish to understand it that they can lift their lives into oneness with God by steadfastly refusing to give error any reality or power to harm. "Entirely separate from the belief and dream of material living, is the Life divine, revealing spiritual understanding and the consciousness of man's dominion over the whole earth," writes Mrs. Eddy in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 14), thus showing that spiritual understanding is man's birthright—that it belongs to him as a child of God. If we really acknowledge this truth, we shall prove that we cannot be separated from spiritual understanding by the mesmeric dream of human birth, growth, maturity, and decay.

If one seems to be lacking in spiritual sense, or even to be skeptical about attaining it, let him study the Bible. There, step by step, the gradual unfolding of spiritual understanding is depicted as coming to the human consciousness, finding its culmination in the life of Christ Jesus, who truly said (John 10:30), "I and my Father are one," and who demonstrated this unity in many marvelous works of healing and dominion.

In the fullness of time and to a less pagan era the light of spiritual Truth shone again through Mrs. Eddy, and she, in complete unselfishness, devoted her life to making her revelation clear and practical for mankind through her writings and her Church. Man's oneness with God as His reflection was her theme, and the power of prayer from first to last was her great message to humanity. The real man, outside of all material selfhood, never separated from good—man immortal, spiritual, satisfied, lovely, and loving, wholly apart from material conception—is the Christ-idea lifted up by Jesus and revealed by Mrs. Eddy. This is the ideal which Christian Science is utilizing in healing and regenerating mankind, and which is simple enough to be grasped by children, yet vast enough to enthrall the best thinkers of the day.

The writer does indeed owe a debt of gratitude to Christian Science, through which she is renewed day by day in waking to more understanding of man's inseparability from the vital power of God. She has experienced much healing from the Christ-idea and joyfully sings in the words of that inspiring hymn in the Christian Science Hymnal (No. 64):

Among lessons learned through years of endeavoring to practice Christian Science is this: that in the degree that the real man has been seen as wholly apart from all that mortal mind would present to her consciousness, evil beliefs have dropped away and disappeared into the dust of ages.

It may not always seem easy to achieve this scientific state of thought, but if we have perceived the Christ-way, we know that we must walk in it. There may come times when mortal suggestions seem to rush in thick and fast, but in the words of Isaiah (59:19), "When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him." And this standard is that of Christian Science; namely, the perfection of man as the reflection of his perfect Principle, God.

In former times when a battle was going hard with one side, the soldiers would lift up their leader's standard and rally their forces to fight to the end in its defense. Christian Scientists should do the same in the hour of trial; they should hold up the flag of Truth, and even if they seem to retreat at times into the wilderness, still bravely carrying the standard, they will persist in knowing the truth of being until they have fully proved that there is no separation in God, good, where man eternally dwells.