Modern society has been referred to by sociologists as an achievement society. It is said that possibilities are unlimited; modern men can achieve everything if they push forward, work hard, and never miss an opportunity to grab for what they want. Modern men believe that their achievement is based upon their innate ability, their education, their intelligence quotient, and their ability to communicate successfully with others.

In the early days of Christianity and throughout the Middle Ages economic gain for its own sake was disparaged, and the Church condemned usury. These teachings were frequently flouted by churchmen and laymen alike; but they remained the standard of the Church.

Later, at the time of the Protestant Reformation, particularly through the teachings of Calvinism, there began to be a gradual change of attitude toward economic gain, including money-lending. "God helps those who help themselves" came to mean that one should work for and expect a material recompense. Soon helping oneself became a major consideration, and God's help was less frequently depended upon or sought.

Today it is believed that through his own efforts one can effect economic gain and an improved status in society. His innate intelligence and his education, together with his own diligence, are supposed to determine his success.

In the university and college atmosphere young men and women feel the pressure of these beliefs. The demand, "Publish or perish," is felt at many levels of higher education and forces students to produce concrete examples of their abilities that they may be measured against the current standard.

Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy presents a new view of mankind's ability to achieve and changes the standard against which men measure themselves and their achievements.

Christian Science teaches that achievement is the result of "the famished affections" being fed— that is, God's love encompassing mankind and mankind loving God, good, above all else. In the Lord's Prayer, which Christ Jesus taught his disciples, we find these words (Matt. 6:11): "Give us this day our daily bread." In Science and Health our Leader gives the spiritual interpretation as follows (p. 17): "Give us grace for to-day; feed the famished affections."

In direct contradiction to the testimony of the material senses, achievement is never the result of favorable human circumstances available to one but not to another: the lucky break or chance opportunity; a superior intellect bestowed by heredity or a power from above.

One achieves or accomplishes as he aligns himself with the force that motivates God's creation— divine Love. One who sees all of God's creation as embraced by divine Love is filled with a joy and a power which destroy whatever seems to stand in the way of right achievement. The student who sees that his fellow students are in reality equally blessed by divine Love—possessing the perfect combination of Godlike qualities, never lacking in intelligence, never the victims of famished affections, never unloved or unlovely, never selfish,—will find manifested in his own experience the very same blessings.

To believe in an unsuccessful or unfulfilled individual is to believe that God's love excludes one of His ideas. An unloved individual is just as much an illusion fostered by mortal mind as is a diseased individual.

To believe in a selfish or greedy individual is to believe that one of God's ideas excludes God from His own universe. The man of God's creating loves God, good, supremely. Every idea of God expresses love for and is obedient to the forces of Love, which motivate the universe. A selfish individual is a mortal mind illusion.

The Christian Scientist must work to see that neither the unsuccessful individual nor the individual who succeeds through selfishness is the expression of God. He must deny the reality of the beliefs that prevail in the thought of the modern student. The illusive picture of many individuals competing for a limited number of places in graduate school and positions in the business world must be replaced by the picture of unlimited goodness for all.

Mrs. Eddy writes on page 518 of Science and Health: "The rich in spirit help the poor in one grand brotherhood, all having the same Principle, or Father; and blessed is that man who seeth his brother's need and supplieth it, seeking his own in another's good. Love giveth to the least spiritual idea might, immortality, and goodness, which shine through all as the blossom shines through the bud." God provides for all His ideas— completely, gloriously.

As the student purifies his thought and sees that "the famished affections" are fed, he will be aligning himself with divine Love, and he will find the answer to the Psalmist's prayer (Ps. 90: 17), "Establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it."