The world in general is deeply concerned with matter and the development of material power. The atomic age is upon us, and the natural sciences are much before public thought. The years ahead will tell what the new release of material energy means to mankind. Undoubtedly this development appears side by side with the spiritually scientific era, which is also upon us and which has been developing divine power to those ready to accept the Science of Christianity since Mary Baker Eddy discovered it.

This Science is exact and promises far more than material so-called science, for Christian Science is the Science of God, and concerns absolute laws and their demonstration. These laws are not only immortal and infinite in possibilities, but they are invariably harmonious and constructive.

The Science of Truth releases the divine power that Jesus demonstrated with matchless ability many centuries ago. The leaven of his teachings has never stopped acting in human thought, and Mrs. Eddy's discovery of the Science of his works and precepts has given untold impulsion to this leavening process. Students of the Bible are familiar with Jesus' parable (Matt. 13:33): "The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened."

The natural sciences deal with material energy released by fission, fusion, and other processes. Christian Science deals with spiritual energy, and it is this resistless energy that carries on the leavening process of Christ, Truth. The moral and spiritual changes taking place in the world, along with astonishing physical changes, are unmistakable signs of the approach of the spiritually scientific age. Mrs. Eddy says in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 223): "Spiritual rationality and free thought accompany approaching Science, and cannot be put down. They will emancipate humanity, and supplant unscientific means and so-called laws."

The problems confronting humanity in this spiritually developing era must be faced honestly and compassionately. Questions of race, economic inequities, political tyranny, national and religious prejudice, are included in the mist that arose from the earth, described in the second chapter of Genesis. This mist of materialism that obscures the truth of being must disappear, for it has no sanction in the Science of God. As the scientific era appears more vividly and individual man is understood as a spiritual identity, untouched by the physical view of him, inequalities and impositions of every sort will be obliterated.

God sees only the man whom He makes in His image; He provides the same infinite health and abundance for every individual; He knows no racial, social, religious, or personal differences. The divine view of man is coming to light as Science draws human thought to the perfection of God's creation and restores through demonstration of real selfhood the dignity that belongs to everyone in the divine order of being. The greatest significance of the present era, with its spiritually scientific healings, is that it portends the appearing of sinless, diseaseless, deathless manhood.

It was the spirit of Christ in the Master that led him to cut through national prejudice and teach the true idea of worship to the Samaritan woman. He explained to her directly and simply that God is Spirit and that true worshipers "worship the Father in spirit and in truth" (John 4:23). So convincing and transforming was the teaching of Jesus that the Samaritans of the woman's village later hailed him as "the Christ, the Saviour of the world." They perceived the implication that Truth is universal.

What is needed today in order to speed the full appearing of the scientific period is the understanding of Christ, the universal and true idea of sonship. For Christ, Truth, reveals each individual as the inseparable expression of God, each dwelling in divine Mind as idea, each manifesting spiritual freedom under the government of God's will, each infinitely blessed and conscious of the atmosphere of Spirit, which is heaven itself.

We read in Science and Health (p. 406), "Sin and sickness will abate and seem less real as we approach the scientific period, in which mortal sense is subdued and all that is unlike the true likeness disappears." If the consciousness of matter were understood as the false mind that it is, as a self-constituted, self-deluded sense in which God and His creation are misconceived, everyone would dedicate his efforts to wakening himself from this delusive, mortal dream. Matter would lose its status as substance, and satisfaction would be sought only in the things of Spirit.

The works of Jesus prefigured the scientific age. He provided a living example of the ideal man and the freedom he expresses in Science. The Master perfected his work as an individual, and then, trusting its effect, he withdrew from the realm of supposition. Following Jesus faithfully, Mrs. Eddy devoted her life to the establishing of the Church that protects, disseminates, and perpetuates the ideal Science that Jesus proved. She trusted her individual accomplishment and left its continuance to the integrity and dedication of those who would recognize what she had discovered and would be willing to forsake matter for Spirit, person for Principle, spiritual idleness for constructive, selfless service.

One's contributions to the scientific period emerging from the mist of materialism will be individual. They will have their effect. They will match one's ideal of existence. Mrs. Eddy says (ibid., p. 360): "You are bringing out your own ideal. This ideal is either temporal or eternal. Either Spirit or matter is your model."

Each of us should feel that the time required for the leaven of Science to finish its work and for the mortal sense to disappear depends upon himself and the manner in which he brings out the ideal Truth in his own life. He will realize that the scientific period is here in the measure of his own demonstration of Truth.

Helen Wood Bauman