The Apostle Paul tells us (Eph. 4:7) "Unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ." Each one of us, therefore, has access to gracious qualities in the proportion that he is Christlike in nature. Now we are told that the Christ has "neither beginning of days, nor end of life" (Hebr. 7:3). This gift, then, belonged to man before the material concept of life began and will continue to be man's after the seeming mortal sense of things has passed into oblivion. It remains only for us in our daily routine to make use of this gift, to put spiritual graces to work for ourselves and others, thereby keeping ever in the light of the Christ.

The world today has much need of all the qualities of this divine gift of grace. Mankind often appear to be swollen with greed, sickening for power, and tempted beyond what they can withstand. Christian Science shows that this kind of man has never been, nor will he ever be, the man God made in His image and likeness. The mortal parades as an illusion of the material senses. This illusion has to be dispelled, as the mist hiding the sun is dispelled by the sun's rays. The rays of Truth, God, the source of man's spiritual light, dispel all illusions or misconceptions regarding man.

In her textbook. "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mary Baker Eddy gives us her spiritual sense of the Lord's Prayer, one line of which is, "Give us this day our daily bread" (Matt. 6:11). Her correlative to this is (p. 17), "Give us grace for to-day; feed the famished affections." This heavenly food satisfies those who are yearning for good, for God as nothing else can.

Christ Jesus, when talking with the multitude which had been fed with the loaves and fishes and had followed him into Capernaum, explained to them that Christ, Truth, was the true bread of Life. He told them further that those who would partake of this bread would never again be hungry. The unleavened bread of Christly grace is satisfying, for it truly feeds "the famished affections." It enables us to see the loveliness of God all about us—expressed in ourselves and in our brother men. It awakens us to the glories of man's true heritage as a son and heir of his Father, God, and to the son's right to the kingdom of heaven here and now. It provides all Love's graciousness wherewith one may serve and love himself and his neighbor.

Grace comes as a natural result of humble, fervent prayer for growth Spiritward. Jesus taught us how to pray, and our Leader thoroughly explains prayer in the first chapter of Science and Health, entitled "Prayer." Praying rightly, we cannot fail to receive what we rightly desire. God's blessings fall like fragrant blossoms all around us. One's family cannot escape some of these blessings, neither can one's neighborhood. The world at large feels the beneficial effects of our righteous praying.

The following incident may serve as a fair example of such prayer. A Christian Scientist, visiting in a home where a group was being entertained, noticed that one of the number was much handicapped by a cold. It was evident that the Scientist had not thoroughly separated disease from her sense of man, for when she awakened the following morning, she had some of the same symptoms which she had been watching in her neighbor the previous evening. This shocked her into alertness.

Realizing that she had fallen far short of using her precious and practical gift of grace, she prayed that she might more purely love her neighbor, thereby seeing him separate and apart from all error. She prayed to have a greater compassion, more mercy, and to be more instant in applying the healing truth to the need of the moment. She desired to share more generously the bread of Life which she was partaking of daily that mankind might be nourished and enriched by this heavenly food.

She then hastened to separate every vestige of this argument for disease from her thought of man and to see him as his Father's image, apart from all evil. She persisted in this line of reasoning until she was wholly convinced of man's immunity to everything unlike God. Within one hour she became aware that there were no more symptoms of cold present. Later her hostess told her that the other afflicted member of the group had also been suddenly healed that morning.

Our Leader requests that Christian Scientists pray for themselves daily. She states (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 127): "When a hungry heart petitions the divine Father-Mother God for bread, it is not given a stone,—but more grace, obedience, and love. If this heart, humble and trustful, faithfully asks divine Love to feed it with the bread of heaven, health, holiness, it will be conformed to a fitness to receive the answer to its desire; then will flow into it 'the river of His pleasure, the tributary of divine Love, and great growth in Christian Science will follow,— even that joy which finds one's own in another's good." Indicated here is a prayer that includes one's neighbor, as well as oneself.

The graces of Spirit enable one to find his neighbor as well as himself enfolded in the great heart of Love. Here each and all are fed with the heavenly bread of lovingkindness, mercy, obedience, health, holiness. God is telling every listening heart (II Cor. 12:9), "My grace is sufficient for thee."