Sitting at my desk one cold but lovely sunny morning, I heard a loud singing of birds. I looked out the window. There, in the leafless tree at the bottom of the garden, I counted over thirty birds. All, without exception, were facing the sun and singing. I was reminded of the following words by Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science: "Nature voices natural, spiritual law and divine Love, but human belief misinterprets nature. ... Suns and planets teach grand lessons. The stars make night beautiful, and the leaflet turns naturally towards the light." ^{Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 240;} I thought, "How true this is, for when we confidently face the sunlight of Truth, we too can sing."

Gazing into the darkness of human discord and wrong, with our back to Truth, we sometimes feel very far from singing. In fact, the longer we look at a difficulty, claiming it as our own, the more likely are we to sink into the depths of despair.

A wealth of instruction lies in the following paragraph from the aforementioned book, the textbook of Christian Science: "If we look to the body for pleasure, we find pain; for Life, we find death; for Truth, we find error; for Spirit, we find its opposite, matter. Now reverse this action. Look away from the body into Truth and Love, the Principle of all happiness, harmony, and immortality. Hold thought steadfastly to the enduring, the good, and the true, and you will bring these into your experience proportionably to their occupancy of your thoughts." ^{pp. 260, 261;}

According to the Gospel of John, Christ Jesus made this statement: "I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." ^{John 8:12;} Was he referring to his human selfhood? He couldn't have been, for he knew that his physical body was to disappear from human sight. Certainly the words and deeds of Jesus have been guidelines for good from that day to this. He was referring to the Christ, the spiritual nature, or Truth, he demonstrated. This was the light for all mankind to follow for all time to come.

It is recorded in the Bible how a sick woman worked her way through the throng around Jesus so that she might touch his garment. She did so and was healed. The healing power was not in the garment. The Master made this clear in his words to the woman when he said to her, "Thy faith hath made thee whole." ^{Luke 8:48;} Her steadfast perseverance, her strong faith that if she could but touch the Master, she would be healed—this faith brought about her healing.

The Christ—the true, spiritual idea—is always with us, available when our consciousness is spiritualized. When, through the pressing crowd of material thoughts we catch a glimpse of the Christ, the divine nature of man, and steadfastly head for it—to touch the hem of the garment of Truth—then the light of its presence shines upon us. We see the wholeness of our being instead of that which seems to be incomplete, lacking health, peace, security. All that is good and rightfully ours as the son and heir of our Father-Mother God, the one and only creator of all that really is.

There are not two gods, one of evil and one of good. Nor does the one God make evil. He makes all, makes it good, and is satisfied with His work. If, in our thinking, we follow after other gods, or powers unlike good, and serve them, then we suffer. But when Christian Science opens our eyes, we find that we have been unwittingly allowing ourselves to be deceived by viewing everything from a mortal, material basis. Scientifically, the light shines through our mistaken thinking and rights it, and we see that we need only change our thoughts from a material, self-centered standpoint to the correct spiritual aspect of man, our own selfhood. Then we are regenerated and purified.

We find that pain, lack, discords of any kind, are not warrantable. Facing the light of Truth, we see that all good is ours without limitation, for God's truth reaches into the darkest corners of thought, banishing what we believed we were and revealing what we really are. We begin to see the truth about ourselves, our own Christlike nature. As we claim the presence of our Father's completeness and our own completeness as His beloved children, inheriting and reflecting all good from Him, we find that we too are whole, already possessing everything necessary for our well-being.

From childhood to maturity I had suffered from rheumatism. I tried various remedies without lasting relief. One evening I was returning home, and as I alighted from the bus, an agonizing pain in my ankle caused me to stumble and fall. Someone helped me reach a garden wall, where I could rest awhile.

I was faced with the problem of walking alone down a long, dark lane to my home, though I couldn't bear to put my foot to the ground to take my weight. Already feeling cold and remembering how similar experiences in the past had kept me limping for some days, I realized that something had to be done right then. I began to think of the Christian Science church service I'd just attended, and there came to me like a ray of light the words of one of the hymns we had sung:

I asked myself, "Are you going to sit here and 'suffer cruel fear'?" With determination I got up, and holding on to the wall for a few yards, I began to sing the hymn. Concentrating on remembering the words, I gradually forgot myself and found I was walking unaided. When I put my key into the door lock, my heart swelled with gratitude as I realized that not for a moment had I been alone. I had been walking with my Father. I had been facing not a dark, lonely lane but the light of Truth. Since that evening over twenty years ago, I have had no rheumatism.

Many times during those years I have been tempted to believe in the reality of discord, or error, in varying forms. But memory has served me well and caused me to turn my back determinedly on the darkness of material, evil suggestions and joyously face the light of Truth. When I have done this, I have found that nothing can shake the simple unalterable Truth. The power and presence of God, all-powerful good, are right where we are. All-embracing God, Love, and His idea, man, are inseparable. A firm conviction of this meets our immediate need and helps us achieve right goals.