Religionists have for ages sought to relate the human to the divine—the human individual to the divine facts of being. The great obstacle has been the belief that matter and evil are realities of being. Attributing dualism to Deity, this belief assumes that Spirit is dependent upon matter for manifestation and that good, having an opposite, is not supreme, All.

Even with such a handicap, however, the steps of progress which have been made in relating the human individual to his divine source have resulted in the overcoming of many phases of restriction and limitation which had been considered necessary elements of human existence.

The marvelous life of Christ Jesus is an example of what is possible when human thought is aware of God as the one divine source of all that really exists. How may we become aware of this all-important fact? By spiritualizing our thought; that is, by responding to the spiritual idea, or Christ, which Mrs. Eddy refers to in these words (Science and Health, p. 332): "Christ is the true idea voicing good, the divine message from God to men speaking to the human consciousness." The Revelator previously had put it this way (Rev. 3:20): "Behold, if [Christ] stand at the door, and knock:: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him and will sup with him, and he with me."

Because of its uncompromising stand that Spirit is infinite and therefore can have no opposite, Christian Science has had criticism and ridicule heaped upon it. But through this Science healings of all kinds of diseases have been accomplished, diseases that have resulted primarily from the belief that matter is substance, that it has life, intelligence, sensation.

Having attained some measure of spiritual discernment through their study of Christian Science, people in all walks of life are finding it possible to understand that because Spirit is All it can have no opposite. Therefore they avoid accepting as true that which is false. As a result, error no longer casts a shadow on their concept of God's allness and of man's unity with the divine source of his being.

In Isaiah we read God's declaration (45:12), "I have made the earth, and created man upon it:: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded." As though to confirm this statement, John declared (1:3), "All things were made by [God]; and without him was not any thing made that was made." God, who is infinite Spirit, is the one and only creator; therefore everything that really exists must be spiritual—in spite of the belief that man and the universe are material.

Spiritualization of thought enables us to behold creation as it really is. Material sense would ascribe to man and the universe qualities and characteristics that bear no true relationship to Spirit. Hence these must be unreal. Thought that is conditioned to view all things materially finds it difficult to hear the Christ, the true idea of God knocking at the door of consciousness. So this true idea is not welcomed in. It is like the light which shines in darkness, but the darkness is unaware of it (see John 1:5).

The leaven of Spirit, however, is at work, and human thought is being roused from its materialistic stupor. As a result, "the divine message from God to men" is being recognized and responded to. This is the point at which a spiritual transformation commences and human beings are able to begin rejecting what they had previously accepted—a material sense of their being—and to accept what was previously imperceptible to them—the spiritual sense of themselves and their relationship to God.

There are many challenges that confront those who would bring themselves under the healing and redeeming power of Christ, Truth. One is the arrogance that dares us to exchange a material sense of our existence, which the world accepts, for the spiritual sense, which "the true idea voicing good" brings to thought. Another challenge is that of going against the current of popular religious and philosophical beliefs in our denial of the universal claim that evil is real.

The difficulty in meeting these challenges is not a lack of moral courage, but a lack of spiritual discernment. Every healing in Christian Science is the result of someone's having effectually denied that the real man, the likeness of God, can be the product or the victim of matter, or evil.

Stating that "thou shalt have no other gods before me" (Ex. 20:3) is the first demand of the Science of Soul, Mrs. Eddy explains on page 467 of Science and Health: "This me is Spirit. Therefore the command means this: Thou shalt have no intelligence, no life, no substance, no truth, no love, but that which is spiritual."

An ever-increasing number of earnest Christians are discerning what is required in spiritual effort to relate themselves to their divine source, and they are willing to fulfill the requirements as rapidly as they are able to. They find the challenges of materialism to be less formidable as they turn away from the erroneous impressions of material sense, hear the voice of Truth, open the door, greet the Christ, and sup with him. As Mrs. Eddy writes (ibid., p. 95), "Material sense does not unfold the facts of existence; but spiritual sense lifts human consciousness into eternal Truth."

Ralph E. Wagers