Unity in Christendom is a subject that gathers intense interest as time goes on. Some denominations have united in an effort to make Christianity one church. Others hold aloof, believing that it is essential to have many denominations in order to maintain theological independence.

No doubt, the breaking up of the Christian movement into many denominations has been a transitional step toward eventual unity on a right basis. Such unity, however, will never be achieved until Truth, which is Christianity in its highest sense, is universally understood.

Christian Science insists that Christian doctrine must be proved by healing works and that creeds have value only in the measure of the truth they contain. True unity in Christendom can never come on the basis of human agreement. It can come only as Christianity is demonstrated as the expression of one God, one Principle, and as having no conflict of doctrine in it. In the Christianity that Jesus taught and demonstrated real life is revealed as spiritual, and the material sense of life is seen as an illusion and a fraud. Man is known as the spiritual son of God, and the mortal sense of man is seen as a lie.

These doctrines, presented by Christian Science, bring healing of mind and body, and eventually such healing will distinguish all Christian worship. Not that healing is the ultimate purpose of Christianity but that the revelation of Christ, Truth, which brings about healing, is. The many prejudices and divisions arising from doctrinal opinions will fade out when Truth itself is accepted by all Christians and consistently proved as a requirement of Christianity.

Mary Baker Eddy says in "Pulpit and Press" (p. 22), "When the doctrinal barriers between the churches are broken, and the bonds of peace are cemented by spiritual understand-ing and Love, there will be unity of spirit, and the healing power of Christ will prevail."

Christian Scientists know that the doctrines of their religion are true because they have found them provable. If at times they fail to demonstrate them, this is not the fault of the doctrines but of the Scientists' too feeble grasp of them. So they press on in the struggle to throw off their own lingering materialism as well as the influence of the world's belief in evil and matter, which claims to rob them of Christly power. The Scientists realize that the unification of Christendom will be speeded in the measure of their actual practice of Truth.

This statement by Mrs. Eddy is often quoted by her followers (ibid., p. 22): "If the lives of Christian Scientists attest their fidelity to Truth, I predict that in the twentieth century every Christian church in our land, and a few in far-off lands, will approximate the understanding of Christian Science sufficiently to heal the sick in his name."

Thirty-seven years of the twentieth century remain for the fulfilling of this prediction. Our Leader leaves no doubt regarding our responsibility toward this fulfillment. We are to attest our fidelity to Truth. If we are not attesting it, we should begin today, this moment, to work diligently to prove the Principle and definite rules of Christian Science that lead to a united Christendom.

Only the impositions of animal magnetism, or suppositional evil, would prevent mankind's realizing the spiritual unity that is the heritage of God's children. We deal with animal magnetism—stop its action—by understanding the omniaction of the one divine Mind and the nothingness of all action that would oppose Mind. God provides the power that nullifies false mental action in ourselves and in the world. But this power must be admitted and utilized as the only force that can make men one in mutual love and understanding.

Demonstrating unity in our families, our churches, our businesses, and even in our communities, through our understanding of the one controlling Principle is taking steps toward a fully united Christendom. When progress toward unity comes about through such demonstrations of Truth, the violent struggles over religious issues, which are sometimes predicted, cannot take place.

Mrs. Eddy says in "No and Yes" (p. 44): "Progress, legitimate to the human race, pours the healing balm of Truth and Love into every wound. It reassures us that no Reign of Terror or rule of error will again unite Church and State, or reenact, through the civil arm of government, the horrors of religious persecution."

Progress in the unifying of Christendom can take place swiftly and quietly, and it will do so if the Truth that is Christianity continues to be extended by Scientists in proof that true doctrine is demonstrable and that there is no other.

In the name of Jesus and the Science which perpetuates his universal mission, Christ, Truth, is still declaring (John 10:15, 16): "As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep. And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd."

Helen Wood Bauman