In every field of useful human activity—the sciences, education, agriculture, and so on—striking gains are continually being made over old limitations. Achievements in all these areas are necessary and good, but it is always most important to recognize and take up the fundamental challenge in human experience: to triumph daily over the beliefs of material existence by demonstrating the fact that God's perfect, spiritual creation is ever present.

Practicing the truths of spiritual being as taught in Christian Science, we find that we are empowered to confront and conquer the challenges we meet, for material obstacles fall when omnipotent Spirit is understood.

Christian Science shows the utter unreality of anything unlike God. The belief that life or intelligence is in matter or material thinking is an error outlawed by the infinitude of immortal Truth, God. He is All, and no material obstacle or thought can oppose Him or hinder us. Only what can be identified as partaking of God's perfect and lovely nature has truth or existence.

He who consistently applies the truths of Christian metaphysics and sees God's divine qualities everywhere present is thereby disbelieving the mesmeric suggestions of mortal mind, or the belief of life in matter, and triumphing over material limitations, sickness, sin, and death, through the understanding of the power of the eternal Christ, Truth, to remove all discord and wrong.

Victory inevitably follows our adherence to the rules of Christian Science. Mrs. Eddy emphasizes some of the prerequisites of triumphing through the application of these rules when she writes in Science and Health: "Whoever would demonstrate the healing of Christian Science must abide strictly by its rules, heed every statement, and advance from the rudiments laid down. There is nothing difficult nor toilsome in this task, when the way is pointed out; but self-denial, sincerity, Christianity, and persistence alone win the prize, as they usually do in every department of life." ^{Science and Health, p. 462;}

We can triumph in Christian Science only when we get a mortal sense of self out of the way, as the foregoing passage states. Because our only individuality is that which we possess as the perfect ideas of God, divine Mind, healing does not involve a mortal mind dealing with another mortal mind. The recognition of this enables the Christian metaphysician to let God do the healing work. It removes from thought such false elements, grounded in human personality, as fearfulness, pride, and a desire to dominate. These would only distract the healer and delay the victory.

Winning in Christian Science also requires an honest, sincere effort to do good. This effort is always rewarded by God, the source of all good. An earnest embracing of what is true, coupled with a firm, sincere rejection of what is false, brings thought into coincidence with God, destroying the errors of belief and demonstrating the omniactivity of absolute harmony. Exactly the right spiritual messages that will result in victory come to the thought of the metaphysician who is attuned to divine Mind. An unselfish desire to bless will win the rewards of Christianity—joy, spiritual understanding, divine support—something that striving for personal honors will never do.

What if, despite consecrated prayer, a broken friendship fails to mend, a dull job remains bleak, an illness lingers? In such a situation one can avail himself of the last quality mentioned by Mrs. Eddy in the passage quoted above: persistence. The all-powerful laws of God, unchanging Love and Truth, are always in operation, everywhere in His infinite realm. Thus, no matter how persistent the discord seems to be, one can be assured of victory if he persistently and obediently follows these laws.

Rising to a higher understanding of Truth, one sees that Truth's infinity and eternality preclude the possibility that wrong of any sort ever existed. We may need much patience, but this does not mean resignation to a prolonged and uninspired struggle. Spiritually viewed, patience is a quality, never exhausted, a humble and hopeful attentiveness to good, which includes true liberty, joy, and inspiration.

The value of persistence as a prelude to victory was proved to my wife and me when we purchased and moved into a new home before we had sold our old residence. Eight months passed before the first home was sold, requiring us to pay all the expenses on both places during that period, a challenge that at the outset would have seemed impossible. We prayed to gain a better understanding of our true, spiritual home, place, and supply, and were given staunch support throughout by a devoted Christian Science practitioner.

Her gentle encouragement and clear perception aided us immeasurably as we pressed onward toward heightened understanding. She stressed that all men already had a heavenly home in God's household and in reality there were no persons trying to sell a house or in search of one. Thus our only true need was to learn more about God and our spiritual home in the realm of the divine Mind.

As each additional expense was incurred during this experience, new sources of supply were opened up from the most unexpected quarters, enabling us to meet all our obligations. And when we firmly understood for ourselves the spiritual facts that the practitioner had been helping us seek, the first home was sold very rapidly.

Because Christian Science demonstrates fixed, divine Principle, we can always confidently expect to win the victory over error when we lovingly and steadfastly apply its rules. This Science does not call us to the battlefield of Truth for loss but for triumph, which is the clear and inevitable right of man's spiritual sonship. In the words of Scripture, "For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith." ^{I John 5:4.}