Not that Christian Science has any policies regarding how one should vote. It does not. But considering, for example, that aspect of politics which is concerned with the way in which public funds are spent, one recognizing Christian Science as the truth of being could be greatly affected in his attitude. Let us see how this applies to three issues that are urgent for city dwellers.

In a few years residents of some cities will find traffic congestion so bad that it will be impossible to travel in the city by automobile. Yet a suggestion that people put money they now spend on private transportation into public conveyances is unpopular enough to prevent anyone running for public office to hint that he believes in it.

Crime and terrorism are making life more and more miserable for city people. Yet the suggestion that citizens can have safe streets and living quarters by paying for adequate protection, not only in money but in personal cooperation and involvement, meets with little genuine support.

Educational systems at all levels fall far short of meeting the needs of oncoming generations for life in a changing world. Yet city after city is having trouble getting enough funds to provide classrooms and teachers to educate these generations under the system now in use.

One's attitude on these three issues would be greatly affected by one's view of Christian Science. Each problem presents to the citizens who are going to solve it the possibility of a major change in the way they spend their incomes. Perhaps ways can be found to solve the problems without this change, but a real consideration of the issues does present the possibility. One who has accepted Christian Science merely as a means to greater material affluence will, unless he changes his approach to this Science, work with his concept of its truths to find ways to escape the problems. But one who accepts this Science as the truth and loves it because it is true will approach each problem with a conviction that a genuine solution will bless even those who must sacrifice for it.

The teachings of Christian Science show us that sacrifice for something that is wise and for the good of all concerned increases, rather than decreases, one's true substance. Man has no life except as the reflection of God, divine Life. And this Life is Love. Insofar as one identifies himself through his thoughts and acts as the reflection of divine Love, he sees the perfect economy of his divine Life reflected in his human experience. Through unselfed love one can find ways to support whatever will help to solve community problems and still not lose anything of his own that has real value.

But to find real value one cannot look to his material possessions or to his personal pleasure in those possessions. God, Life, Love, is the only Soul, the only consciousness of being. In divine Life, therefore, one finds his own consciousness of value. If one's sense of value pertains to the expression of love, it is real. And as one thinks and acts as a thoughtful, love-expressing, self-sacrificing individual, he can scientifically realize the perfect cause of all good and experience the demonstration of its perfect effect.

A true sense of values is really a true view of oneself. Christ Jesus hinted this when he spoke of the kingdom of heaven as "like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field." ^{Matt. 13:44;} As a citizen facing vital issues, one can find real solutions by seeking a better and still better sense of his own identity in the government of Life, Love, and Soul. But if he clings to his old sense of what is important in his life and attempts to borrow from Christian Science only those portions of the total Truth which seem to support his present views, he can only succeed in separating himself from the divine source of wisdom and substance.

Thinking and acting in the understanding of man as an idea of divine Life and Love, one is concerned not for the material loss or gain that would come from a particular method of solving the city's transportation problem as much as for the qualities of God one would express in working out his support of a practicable system. His attitude toward crime prevention would place first the love he would express in considering the needs of others, the divine intelligence he would express in seeking and promoting just and efficient law enforcement. His position on education in his community would reflect his desire to express the qualities of spiritual discernment, spiritual understanding, wisdom, unselfed love—all qualities of the divine Mind, God.

These qualities recognized as one's own move one to act effectively, enable one to discern true leadership and to detect and expose false leadership. They also prompt one to know when he would be effective in taking an active part in civic affairs. As a conscious expression of the qualities of God, one is always conscious of being guided by the divine source of those qualities.

Once realizing the truth of this Science, how could anyone possibly view his fellowmen and their problems in the same light as before? What happens to us as we learn of Christian Science is expressed in this passage from the chapter on Prayer in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy: "Simply asking that we may love God will never make us love Him; but the longing to be better and holier, expressed in daily watchfulness and in striving to assimilate more of the divine character, will mould and fashion us anew, until we awake in His likeness." ^{Science and Health, p. 4.}

Carl J. Welz