Brethren , I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 3:13, 14). Christian Science makes it possible for mankind to reach this mark—the demonstration in individual experience of the true or spiritual sense of life, which Christ Jesus exemplified so perfectly in his short earthly experience.

Could we adopt a more worthy aim in life or seek a more commendable goal? To press toward the understanding of God, which enables us to bless mankind by healing and redeeming it through the all-power of divine Love, is to reach out for a prize that is surely beyond price.

No satisfaction or joy is comparable to that experienced when we exercise the spiritual ability to free our fellow men from the snares and troubles of so-called material existence. To gain this ability, however, even in small measure, we must overcome in our own consciousness belief in the reality of evil, for the power of divine Mind can be expressed in no way other than through true knowing—the knowing that God is good and is All. We must meet the necessity of destroying through spiritual understanding the fears and doubts arising from the false belief that man is a material entity separate from God.

The wife of a Christian Scientist had suffered much in the past from whitlows. She awoke one morning with a finger indicating by its appearance and feeling the beginning of yet another. Recalling her past experience, she asked for prayerful metaphysical aid in Christian Science. Her husband retired to his room to be alone. As he lifted up his thought in prayer, a gleam of spiritual light revealed clearly the impossibility of matter creating any condition—good or bad—for man, who is God's likeness. This brought about an instantaneous healing, and it has been permanent.

Spiritual inspiration disperses the clouds of material sense and reveals the ever-presence of God, Spirit, even where matter and its discords falsely claim to be. The perfect naturalness of spiritual consciousness foreshadows the doom of all material thinking.

As we press on, the false appetites and wrongful desires which we have cherished may continue to present their false claims until their nothingness is understood in the light of the truth of Spirit's allness. But when we maintain our stand for the truth, the angels of divine Love give us strength and encouragement according to our need. The enrichment of our affections by the beautiful, the good, and the pure becomes evident, and our thought irresistibly rises in gratitude to God.

The finite, personal sense of life which, by the very nature of its false structure, hides the presence of God from us, as a cloud hides the sun, must give place to spiritual sense. When our efforts to grow in spiritual stature are characterized by devotion, courage, and persistence, the hand of divine Love will assuredly lead us each step of the way. Comforting, guiding, protecting, and convincing evidence of God's all-power and all-presence will increase our faith. The frustrations, disappointments, and sometimes bitter experiences that are common to a material sense of existence can always be made instruments for the furtherance of our progress Spiritward when the Godlike qualities of wisdom, intelligence, and unselfed love are utilized.

To the alert student of this Science opportunities to know and do the perfect will of God and thereby grow spiritually-minded are really countless. The acceptance of these opportunities always brings to us sure reward and the progressive unfoldment of spiritual reality.

The prayer of the earnest Christian Scientist is ever a burning desire that he may faithfully and gratefully accept each God-given opportunity to progress toward the Christian ideal of instantaneous spiritual healing. Truly, the more the heart of the Scientist is filled with love for God and man, the more effortless is his ability to demonstrate the healing power of divine Love.

Out of the depth of a loving heart Mary Baker Eddy writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (pp. 226, 227): "The lame, the deaf, the dumb, the blind, the sick, the sensual, the sinner, I wished to save from the slavery of their own beliefs and from the educational systems of the Pharaohs, who to-day, as of yore, hold the children of Israel in bondage. I saw before me the awful conflict, the Red Sea and the wilderness; but I pressed on through faith in God, trusting Truth, the strong deliverer, to guide me into the land of Christian Science, where fetters fall and the rights of man are fully known and acknowledged." May we keep ever before us this unselfed purpose of our beloved Leader and "press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."