The spiritual fact of anything is ever present in individual consciousness and can be discerned and demonstrated for the one seeking help; or the one in need can prove it for himself. Can this spiritual method of healing be effective in serving the needy, the ones without funds for food, children lacking family care, those without the means for education? It can indeed! The healing of poverty comes as the needy one learns that God is Love, and that this Love provides for the happiness and well-being of every creature in His universe. The one in need finds in his study of Christian Science that the infinite God is the source of all that really exists. He finds that he himself consists, in his real selfhood, of all the enriching qualities of Love. He learns that affluence is one of the ideas comprising his true being, and that within his own consciousness must be found the spiritual wealth that banishes his limited sense of supply. And this truth understood opens the way so that all that he needs comes to him to take care of his family or pay his debts or complete his education.

In this way Christian Science offers the Christly service of comfort and the knowledge of what wealth really is and where it may be found. True wealth is in the spiritual consciousness of the amplitude of divine Love and in the awareness of the ever-presence of this Love. In this awareness fear and anxiety disappear, and there appears the necessary work, or food, or educational opportunity that seemed so lacking.

There is another area of human experience in which Christian Science healing serves by bringing assurance and comfort. In the textbook Mrs. Eddy says, "Spiritual causation is the one question to be considered, for more than all others spiritual causation relates to human progress. "3 The tragic inherited predilection to crime or sin can be subjected to the spiritual logic of Christian Science, which recognizes Spirit alone as the origin of man. Reasoning from the standpoint of spiritual cause to spiritual effect, the Christian Science healer

demonstrates that the real selfhood of everyone must and does reflect Spirit as his true inheritance. No evil can be found in the spiritual effect of spiritual causation.

Much effort is being made to bring equipoise to racial tensions and disputes. And legislation can bring this about in some degree. But the real contribution to the solution of racial discrimination is to be found by turning to the divine Spirit as the Father-Mother of all, and by learning through Science what belongs to each individual in his relation to this divine Parent.

Paul, in his letter to the Christians in Galatia, implied that to find one's identity in Christ is to lose material distinctions of nationality and to stop discrimination, thus to prove the spiritually progressive selfhood of the children of God (see Gal. 3:26-29). Spirit produces its likeness in wholeness and competence. A deep and prayerful study of the elements comprising true individuality, together with the practice of these in all the details of daily life, brings the realization that each individual is the Christly man of the one Father-Mother, secure in well-being and sure of progress in all ways. No greater service could be offered to mankind than the realization of the perfection of man in Science.

But there is another aspect of racial discrimination that needs healing, and that is the blindness and prejudice which obstruct people's ability to be aware of the feelings and the needs of others. This prejudice would cause them to deny the possibility of progress unless it concerns their own race. Peter learned an important lesson on this subject at the beginning of his ministry (see Acts 10:1-36). His education and training as a Jew made it unlawful for him to consort with one of another nation. The lesson he learned is summed up in his own words: "Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: but in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.” 4

There are many today whose thought is as rigid and stereotyped as was Peter's. Their need is to seek and find in Christly

consciousness the true nature and birthright of all. Christian Science brings the Christly consciousness of the true selfhood of all men to bear on racial problems and breaks the bondage of fear or hate, enabling the individual to find his true kinship with all mankind.

In a world wherein orthodox theories and standards of behavior are being severely challenged, where codes of religion and conduct are ignored or derided, Christian Science brings a standard that survives. Its service to humanity is measureless. Healing in Christian Science proves that by living in obedience to the law of God one's life is transformed; one

finds that health and happiness are natural components of consciousness. One learns to base his behavior on the rock of spiritual understanding, discerning through Science the dividing line between the seeming and the actual, the unreal and the real, the material and the spiritual.

A transformed life is not arguable. Skepticism cannot minimize it. It proclaims the fact that healing in Christian Science is the ultimate in service, exemplifying the dignity and greatness of the humility of Christ Jesus when he said, "I am among you as he that serveth."5

1 Science and Health, p. 332; 2 pp. 476, 477; 3 p. 170; Acts 10:34, 35; 5 Luke 22:27.

Freedom for What?

LEE ZEUNERT JOHNSON

Freedom requires a purpose. It takes on meaning for you and me as we discover its uses. We know it when we exercise it, and we love it when we use it to attain some worthy goal. In short, freedom begs a "for what?"-or even "so what?"

One writer observes: "At best men cannot be simply free or simply happy in being free-they must always be doing something with their freedom, employing it to some purpose. As they become freer, have more choice in ends, their most difficult problems begin." 1

Our society is riddled by a disturbing disenchantment with freedom or the way freedom has been employed. Increasing numbers are to be found believing that freedom has failed the cause of social and economic justice and individual meaningfulness. They see it as a hypocrisy of the Establishment, a smoke screen behind which the few permit, indeed perpetuate, conditions intolerable for many.

Are not our times calling for a fresh look at freedom? Traditionally the cry has been

to touch more people with liberty, but is there not a need as well to deepen radically the purposes for which liberty is exercised? The question "freedom for what?" is every bit as important today as the question "freedom for whom?" How does Christian Science approach this question?

Since it proclaims God, Spirit, as the only cause and insists upon measuring man according to a spiritual yardstick, Christian Science finds human freedom carried forward by spiritual power, indeed directly proportionate to the spirituality expressed by a people. Let us explore this point as the key to a more purposeful exercise of freedom.

Observers distinguish three broad purposes as pretty well summing up the different ways people have of looking at freedom.

One purpose is self-determination. From this point of view freedom is the capacity to make choices and decisions, to determine for oneself what one will think and

do.

The fact in Science is that man is Goddetermined, not man-determined. True identity is predestined to express the divine decision as to creation's wholeness and goodness. Christ Jesus, who marvelously freed his fellowmen, indicated his Goddetermined nature when he said, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do."2

The Christian Scientist bears in mind the fact that man is always linked to something greater than himself and so is determined by it. This link is solely to God, divine Mind. There is no alternative, despite the stubborn fictions that argue that man is linked to matter or stands alone. How does this fact of being linked to God accord with liberty? Paul juxtaposed in an instructive way a statement on liberty with a comment on man's spiritual link. He wrote, "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." And he followed this up immediately with the remarkable finding, "But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." Some scholars would render the phrase "beholding as in a glass" as "reflecting as does a mirror." This wording suggests the scientific explanation that the truly free man reflects divine Spirit, Love, exclusively and unbrokenly. Mrs. Eddy writes: "Man is tributary to God, Spirit, and to nothing else. God's being is infinity, freedom, harmony, and boundless bliss." 4

Through humility the Scientist recognizes the allness of God. He accepts this fact and demonstrates its meaning. Pride would lead one to rebel against Truth and so limit his capacity and freedom. But it is not the light ray that revolts against its source. Nor for that matter, does the light argue with the dark. Indeed it can do. neither and still be light and obliterate darkness. The lesson is clear-humility inpower, the spiritual power that enlightens and liberates. Self-realization is a second purpose for

duces

freedom, perhaps the most usual one. To the extent that one acts as he wishes for his own good as he sees it, a man may be said to be free. For him to do this, however, the circumstances must be favorable.

Self-realization in Science is based on spiritual understanding, which provides a clearer and more practical sense of man's link to Spirit, God. It involves putting off the old man-as Paul urged in several letters-and putting on the new, purely spiritual idea. Spiritual understanding enables one to demonstrate the truth, break adverse circumstances, and allows one to discover and so express the man whom God has made.

The old man, the false view, is perpetually enslaved within a closed system of mortality. He is environmentally, chemically, and irrationally determined. He is a puppet dangling on the strings of heredity, of the unconscious and the bestial-chance and circumstance pulling the strings. Predestined to end in decay and death, he involves everything worth losing and not a thing worth saving.

The new or true man on the other hand is perpetually free because he reflects divine Spirit. Infinite Love expresses through man its own qualities of joy, inspiration, justice, health, dominion, completeness, and supply. Soul's evergreen purposes, delight, and spontaneity characterize his being and activity. The variety of infinity is the spice of divine Life.

As this true view spiritualizes thought, its step-by-step demonstration in healing follows. Discovering himself in eternal relation to God, one finds himself free-and in a very practical sense. Let us consider an analogy.

The physicist has made his understanding of light rays more useful by reckoning them as both individual particles and waves continuous with their source. He has found a more workable whole in reconciling what at first glance appear to be opposites-particles and waves.

So the Christian Scientist betters the practicality of his concept of man by per

of the members for God, for their church, and for Christian Science was very evident. "What a group they have here!" the student thought. As soon as the service ended, she went at once to request an application for membership.

The student realized that she had not pulled up deeply settled roots from the church where she had so long been a member to reestablish them in another branch church. She knew that, in reality, there is only one Church and one God and Father of us all. The words of a loved hymn flooded her consciousness:

One holy church, one army strong,
One steadfast high intent,

One working band, one harvest song,
One King omnipotent.1

The enthusiasm of the members of this branch church for Christian Science and their all-encompassing love for friends and strangers, for the community, the world, yes, even the universe, has contributed in a great measure to its growth. They exemplify the words of Mrs. Eddy, "What our churches need is that devout, unselfed quality of thought which spiritualizes the congregation."

The student soon was admitted into membership, and her roots settled naturally and gently into the new soil. Her love for church continued to expand, and the church has progressed steadily. The words Mrs. Eddy wrote to the White Mountain Church in her native state might seem appropriate here: "May God's little ones cluster around this rock-ribbed church like tender nestlings in the crannies of the rocks, and preen their thoughts for upward flight." 3

8

Christ Jesus loved the church. When he was just a young boy, his parents found him in the temple asking questions of the rabbis. Later, when he asked his disciples who he was, Peter's keen spiritual sense enabled him to recognize and state, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." Then, we read in Matthew's Gospel: "Jesus answered and said unto him,

4

John the Revelator loved the church too. He realized the subtlety of passiveness. This quality presented itself even in his time! In Revelation he wrote "what the Spirit saith unto the churches." To the church in Laodicea he said, "I know thy works, that ... thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot." The pitfalls of being lukewarm members are avoided as we actively participate in regular attendance at the Sunday services and Wednesday testimony meetings and in the acceptance of church appointments.

Are we just enjoying, but not joining, the church? No feeling of inadequacy or reluctance due to family or business commitments can keep us from becoming members. Our God-appointed mission does not detract from our freedom; it supports and sustains it. If there is hesitancy or reluctance in taking this progressive step, we can find comfort and assurance in the words of David to his son Solomon:

"Be strong and of good courage, and do it: fear not, nor be dismayed: for the Lord God, even my God, will be with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee, until thou hast finished all the work for the service of the house of the Lord."

998

Church activity does not confine itself to its immediate circle; it is expansive, reaching out into the community to embrace all in its love. An active member lives Christian Science not alone in the confines of his own church; he reflects Love in the byways of daily life, in the busy market or office, driving a car, cleaning a house, or in the classroom. Opportunities to give unfold everywhere as thought expands to include all mankind. Such giving, such seeking, such living, attracts the stranger, for every

THOMA