As far as I can remember, I've always associated the law of gravity with the story of an apple falling on the head of Isaac Newton! Daily experiences confirm this early training: when we fall, we always fall down; when we drop a cup, it always falls to the floor; when our spacemen return, they seem to come "down" to earth. We're conditioned to associating gravity with movement in a downward— that is, earthward—direction.

Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, helps us think of gravitation in an utterly different way. In Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures she says, "Mortals must gravitate Godward, their affections and aims grow spiritual,—they must near the broader interpretations of being, and gain some proper sense of the infinite,—in order that sin and mortality may be put off."^{Science and Health, p. 265.}

If we must gravitate Godward—be drawn toward God, Spirit—and we must, then our ultimate direction is Spiritward, not down to limited matter or into the mire of sin, sickness, or death. Rather, we progress to a fuller sense of unlimited, divine beauty and love, completeness, goodness, and true health—perfection. Christian Science has given us a startling new concept of gravitation, one that leads away from the material, downward sense of things and up to the spiritual ideal. The downward pull is a mortal sense of gravitation because one sees matter as substance; whereas man's life in God is always unlimited and spiritual because true substance is always spiritual.

In explaining how to practice Christian Science, Science and Health encourages us to look away from matter and to gravitate toward Mind—the divine, omnipotent Mind, which heals all our troubles. It states, "When the sick or the sinning awake to realize their need of what they have not, they will be receptive of divine Science, which gravitates towards Soul and away from material sense, removes thought from the body, and elevates even mortal mind to the contemplation of something better than disease or sin."^{Ibid., p. 323.}

We can arouse ourselves from the dream of life in matter and accept the spiritual truth that there is no life or sensation, intelligence or substance, in matter; that there is never any cause of disease, sin, or death in matter. This spiritual reasoning and enlightenment will lift our thought to coincide more nearly with the divine and thus ensure healing. This is gravitation and growth Spiritward.

Certainly, the healings that took place in the Scriptures—such as the raising of Lazarus^{See John 11:1-44 .} and of the synagogue ruler's daughter^{See Matt. 9:18, 19, 23-26 .} — were brought about by Christ Jesus' unflinching and immovable faith in and understanding of God's power. These examples serve as unfailing guides in our turning away from matter to Mind in our daily experience and study. In the account of the raising of Lazarus the Bible says that "Jesus lifted up his eyes"—perhaps we could say he raised his level of thought away from the mortal picture of a body in the tomb and up to the spiritual perfection of the true nature of Lazarus. Then Jesus told those witnessing this beautiful healing, "Loose him"—let go of your limited, restricting, mortal thoughts about Lazarus—"and let him go"—free, whole, perfect.

In the case of the daughter of the leader of the synagogue, Jesus put out the mourners, who had accepted the confining, mortal thoughts of death about her. Then the Master took the young maiden by the hand and told her to arise. Uplifted by the truth he knew of her, the maid rose, alive and free.

Inspired prayer is a major factor in our efforts to gravitate Spiritward. Paul counseled the Thessalonians, "Pray without ceasing." ^{I Thess. 5:17.} What does this mean exactly? Falling on our knees at all hours of the day and night? Not quite, but it does mean guarding our thought continually. A kind word to a colleague can be prayer; giving a lift to someone whose car is down or helping another person navigate a busy crossing can be an expression of prayer; handing an open hymnal to a latecomer at church or helping a crying child find his parents can bear witness to prayer. Exchanging a material sense of a situation for the spiritual reality is prayer. Acts like these help us to gravitate Spiritward.

En route to work we can deny that an accident is of God. Accidents are not part of His perfectly planned existence for man. To accept evil at face value is to believe that for a fraction of a second, God is not in control of His universe. That's not possible, because God is omnipotent.

Negating the belief of hate expressed toward us by a colleague can be done by knowing that all space is filled with God's love because God fills all space. We can reject dishonesty or rudeness in an individual at work or play, because we know man's true nature as God's perfect, individual idea, manifesting Principle and Truth in integrity and uprightness.

All these activities are evidence of prayer; and certainly the calm, quiet study of the Lesson-Sermon ^{In the Christian Science Quarterly.} each day is prayer—an indication of our aim to gravitate Godward. Eliminating material thinking with the spiritual in every instance is true prayer.

Science and Health says it so beautifully: "It is the spiritualization of thought and Christianization of daily life, in contrast with the results of the ghastly farce of material existence; it is chastity and purity, in contrast with the downward tendencies and earthward gravitation of sensualism and impurity, which really attest the divine origin and operation of Christian Science. The triumphs of Christian Science are recorded in the destruction of error and evil, from which are propagated the dismal beliefs of sin, sickness, and death."^{Science and Health,p. 272.}

The more earnest our study and the purer our thought and desire, the more we will gravitate toward perfection—toward Christ, Truth.