Christ Jesus prophesied that "there shall be one fold, and one shepherd."^{John 10:16.} Christian Science helps us to spiritually understand this prophecy and the possibilities of our beginning to fulfill it now in greater peace and brotherhood among all peoples of the world.

This Science reveals that God is universal Mind, Spirit. He is the creative Father and Mother of the entire universe, which is spiritual. As the Principle that is Love, God tenderly, eternally loves and cares for all His children. What a great and loving Shepherd He is! In truth, then, we are all related to God, the only real Mind, as His sons and daughters, His spiritual ideas. All is God, Mind, and His great family of perfect ideas, who, though infinite in diversity, dwell in harmony and perfect peace. In actuality, Science explains, there isn't a human race composed of mortals, either all alike or of different colors, cultures, tongues. The spirituality of man is the great, basic truth of being. In her poem "The New Century" the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, writes, "'Tis writ on earth, on leaf and flower:/Love hath one race, one realm, one power."^{Poems, p. 22}

How quickly, sometimes, we forget spiritual truths when dealing with another, particularly those of races other than our own. Most individuals think of each other as mortal beings and of mankind as constituted of different kinds of mortals—Americans, Russians, Asians, black or white, and so forth. But mortality is a false concept of man, and so a mortal—whether sick or well, malicious or well-intentioned, light-skinned or dark-skinned—is a misconception. And this misconception of man is the foundation of all inharmony, including racial discord. It fosters bigotry, prejudice, suspicion, and racial violence. It ruptures human relationships and brotherhood everywhere whenever it is unchallenged by the Christ—the spiritual idea of sonship.

Furthermore, every facet of the so-called material creation, which is formed by mortal mind, the supposititious opposite of the one divine intelligence, is erroneous—mythological. This creation is an illusion, which God, Life, Truth, dispels. All of mortal mind's prevailing concepts of man and the universe as material are lies about God and His idea. They are unreal, hence without truth or substance, and these falsehoods can be exposed and destroyed only by Christ, Truth.

Daily we all can help to achieve greater harmony between races if we are willing to correctly identify men and women of all races as children of God and not as material mortals with African, Caucasian, or Asian racial heritage. True identification spiritually perceives in each individual the Christ-man, forever expressing God's attributes of love, dignity, gentleness, integrity. Such qualities constitute true being, everyone's real, spiritual selfhood.

On the other hand, if we identify ourselves and others as physical racial entities, we're apt to link certain negative qualities with each race. This erroneous method of viewing everyone stems from the fundamental false belief of more than one Mind, which is the basic cause of hatred, violence, and war. To help heal racial inharmony and to achieve peace and brotherhood among all people, one has to begin by gaining the true concept of Mind as God, as one and infinite, and of man as the divine ideal, and by then striving to spiritually understand and practice this truth of being.

Invaluable reference tools in gaining these inspired sought-after spiritual views of divine reality are the Holy Bible and the writings of Mrs. Eddy, including the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. Daily we find that through prayer, study, and demonstration of the facts of divine Life, racial problems, both individual and collective, can be resolved more quickly and beneficially. No seeming evil power or misconception can persist in consciousness as one comes to realize the oneness and allness of Mind, the presence and power of divine Truth and Love.

Of this infinite Mind Mrs. Eddy writes: "One infinite God, good, unifies men and nations; constitutes the brotherhood of man; ends wars; fulfils the Scripture, 'Love thy neighbor as thyself;' annihilates pagan and Christian idolatry,—whatever is wrong in social, civil, criminal, political, and religious codes; equalizes the sexes; annuls the curse on man, and leaves nothing that can sin, suffer, be punished or destroyed." ^{Science and Health, p. 340.}

Recently I had an experience that demanded I surrender the view of people as mortals capable of dealing unfairly with each other because they belonged to different races. While I was serving in a Christian Science Reading Room, a young woman came in and purchased several expensive Bible reference books. She paid for them with a personal check, which her bank refused to honor because it was incorrectly signed.

The woman had written her address and telephone number on the check. So I called the number and talked with her brother, who said the woman wasn't there. That was all I could learn.

By now I had begun to pray earnestly about the problem. Recognizing that I was associating certain negative qualities with the young woman's race, I prayed to see beyond the concept of man as a mortal with flaws and foibles, to God's sinless, perfect child. I identified all concerned (including myself) as children or ideas of the one all-loving Mind—children who at that moment were living together in love, brotherhood, and harmony.

The words of the prophet Malachi came to thought, "Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us?" ^{Mal. 2:10.} I firmly declared that the one Mind eternally controls its own reflection, man: that all of us were in truth Mind's reflection, hence governed by this divine Principle, Love; that therefore we were all held in loving unity with each other. I acknowledged that it was impossible that Mind's own idea had ever been or could become sinful or imperfect.

I continued to affirm spiritual truths, and soon all fear that the money would not be restored disappeared. The realization came that God, the all-knowing Mind, knows all things and that He can and does continuously reveal to His idea, man, all that man needs to know. After all, I reasoned, the one Mind has all power and not just some! Power meant to me the ability to make things happen. The divine all-power meant one and only one cause and effect. The affirmation of these spiritual facts, I realized, was a good denial of the false picture of man that the senses were presenting. I determined to wait on God and listen for His unerring direction for the next step to take.

Once more I called the number given, and the brother gave me his grandmother's telephone number. When I called her she quickly supplied a new home address and phone number. That evening I reached the young woman, who agreed to come to the Reading Room and repay us.

When she didn't come, once again I turned confidently to God in prayer and fearlessly acknowledged His allness and man's inviolate relationship to Him. I again denied the belief that man is a mortal of a material origin, race, or background and realized that man is spiritual and forever expresses God's integrity.

I gained great peace as I realized that man comes from God, is ever sustained by God, and lives in peace with all his brethren. These words of a hymn from the Christian Science Hymnal came to thought:

The next day the young woman came with a legitimate reason for not keeping the first appointment. She was cooperative and apologetic and gave us a new check. A month later she returned with a friend of another race, and several months later she came to study. I rejoiced in this proof of the universal presence, attraction, and activity of the Christ. I rejoiced even more that suspicious distrust on my part had been dissolved by the Christ.

How quickly error can be destroyed when we apply the spiritual facts of being to overturn false concepts of God and man! But how quickly we actually do destroy error depends on our willingness to relinquish these concepts and accept the saving Christ, Truth. Our individual demonstrations of the one Mind, by which we prove that Mind's "race" of spiritual ideas is the only race, help to bring to light the brotherhood of man everywhere today. Such demonstrations contribute to personal, local, national, and international peace. And when we're prayerfully considering spiritual truths, we want to include ourselves in Love's race—residing in Love's realm and under Love's power. What a wonderful "location" to be in: the one Mind's fold of perfect, spiritual ideas, watched over by the great Shepherd, divine Love.

God... hath made of one blood all nations of men
for to dwell on all the face of the earth,
and hath determined the times before appointed,
and the bounds of their habitation;
that they should seek the Lord,
if haply they might feel after him,
and find him,
though he be not far from every one of us. Acts 17:24, 26, 27