knowledge gives us sovereign power, not over mortals but over every phase of ignorant, fraudulent, and malicious animal magnetism.

Possessing Christliness makes evil and error nothing, nobody. When we know better and are living according to our claim, neither false accusations nor human opinions can masquerade as our consciousness. "I was never there in matter" disallows animal magnetism from creating states and stages of mesmerism. Loyalty to Christ keeps us empty of aught but good, and free from arguing silently or audibly with different personalities.

According to Christian Science we have always been divine ideas in Mind, hearing and obeying the still small voice of Truth, knowing spiritual facts only. The angels of His omnipresence have been our associates wherever we may seem to have been humanly, whether in the home, church, school, factory, or office. “A spiritual being in the realm of Mind" is the scientific answer to the question, "Where was I?" Claim your true, spiritual preexistence and be free.

1 John 8:58; 217:5; 3 Mis., p. 189; 4 The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 242; 5 Col. 3:10.

PAULINE B. RADER

time, claimed to be a special recipient of a supernatural gift. Each showed by word and deed that the works of spiritual healing are available to all who are willing to understand God, and man's relationship to Him.

1

Jesus said, "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father." Mrs. Eddy writes of Jesus in Science and Health: "The 'man of sorrows' best understood the nothingness of material life and intelligence and the mighty actuality of all-inclusive God, good. These were the two cardinal points of Mind-healing, or Christian Science, which armed him with Love. The highest earthly representative of God, speaking of human ability to reflect divine power, prophetically said to his disciples, speaking not for their day only but for all time: 'He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also;' and 'These signs shall follow them that believe.'" 2

Does this not indicate the kind of reason

ing that we follow in order to avail ourselves of this divine power? Is not our need also to recognize the unreality of materiality and accept the allness of God?

The power to heal has been regarded by the majority as concerning only the human body and as vested in doctors and medicine. So the world in general believes it is necessary to call upon these agencies in order to be healed. Christian Science, on the other hand, acknowledges God as the only healer and includes every area of human experience in its restorative mission. It teaches that when one understands God's power and God's law as superseding any other so-called power or law, one finds that divine law and power operate in his own experience, and through him in the experience of others, to heal and to save from difficulties of all sorts.

How does one learn to reflect this healing power of God in order to help others? One begins with himself—with his own thinking—to accomplish the desired result. One's own consciousness must be purged of all belief in the limitations of mortal sense and filled with the awareness of God's presence. One must be prepared with a recognition of the availability of God's power in any situation.

As one sees the spiritual perfect man of God's creating in place of its human misconception, he sees many of his false traits of character and disposition replaced by the qualities of God, the graces of Spirit. As he continues to express these qualities more and more, he will become a better healer. Self-evangelization and the continual refutation of false evidence and the replacement of it with the truth enable one to align his thought with God's healing power and to demonstrate it in the world.

Many Christians are taught theoretically that God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. Christian Science teaches that, as Mrs. Eddy says in Science and Health, "There is no power apart from God. Omnipotence has all-power, and to acknowledge any other power is to dishonor God." When one's thinking is changed

3

from the acceptance of the necessity for accidents, wars, poverty, epidemics, earthquakes, and suffering of any kind—that is, when one refuses to believe that evil is as powerful as good-he gains dominion and learns to expect good rather than evil. This is the attitude of thought that Jesus maintained, and in the degree that it is practiced it heals every discordant condition.

The second definition of "charisma" indicates also that the power of healing is "for the good of the church."

4

When Jesus questioned his disciples as to who men thought he was and then asked, "But whom say ye that I am?" Peter answered, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus commended the answer, declaring that God had revealed it to Peter, and added, "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Commenting on this, Mrs. Eddy writes: "In other words, Jesus purposed founding his society, not on the personal Peter as a mortal, but on the God-power which lay behind Peter's confession of the true Messiah.

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"It was now evident to Peter that divine Life, Truth, and Love, and not a human personality, was the healer of the sick and a rock, a firm foundation in the realm of harmony. On this spiritually scientific basis Jesus explained his cures, which appeared miraculous to outsiders. He showed that diseases were cast out neither by corporeality, by materia medica, nor by hygiene, but by the divine Spirit, casting out the errors of mortal mind."

On this same foundation of Truth the Church of Christ, Scientist, is established. For this reason its members strive to emulate Jesus in healing the sick and the sinner and overcoming all manner of evil. It is evident to them, as it was to Peter, that no human personality is a healer-only the power of God. The church is as strong as the members who comprise it, and therefore each one must realize that it is incumbent upon him to accept charisma, in the Christian sense of the word-the warmth

of divine grace—not only for himself but for all the sons and daughters of God.

From the standpoint of this healing power, which God bestows upon all who love Him and keep His commandments, one may claim immunity from all forms of lack, whether they claim to be in himself, in his home, in his church, or in the world.

God is Spirit, and Spirit is substancethe source of health, harmony, supply, and happiness. God is constantly pouring forth His blessings on His creation. We read in Psalms, "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies; who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's.""

So we see that charisma, the grace and beauty of Soul, is not a special gift to a

selected few but a divine bestowal from God to all His children. Unless one is aware that he can reflect this gentle power, he is likely to neglect its use. It is well known that the neglect of a talent invites its loss. Jesus brought this out in his parable of the talents, which he concluded with these words: "For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath. The more we are aware of our true being as God's manifestation, the more health and dominion we enjoy. And the more we avail ourselves of God's power to heal, the better healers we become.

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Do you have charisma, the reflected grace and power of God that heals? You have it to the extent that you claim it. God is willing that you shall have it. Are you?

1 John 14:12; 2 Science and Health, p. 52; 3 p. 228; 4 Matt. 16:15, 16; 5v. 18; 6 Science and Health, p. 138; 7 Ps. 103:2-5; 8 Matt. 25:29.

EPHPHATHA!

KURT GLADHORN

Holiness and wholeness are spiritual facts of God's faultless creation. Healing is the human manifestation, the appearing, of these facts. Each healing of sin or sickness by spiritual means is a proof that we are on the right way to salvation. A scientific solution to any problem through the application of Christian Science demonstrates the ever-presence of health and perfection reflected uninterruptedly by the ideal man, made in the image and likeness of Spirit, God.

There is no formula for Christianly scientific prayer, or treatment. It is based on inspiration, and it is individual, different every time. The practitioner must always listen for God's direction. Isaiah says, "Thus saith the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength." 1

Mrs. Eddy writes in Science and Health "If Spirit or the power of divine Love bear witness to the truth, this is the ultimatum, the scientific way, and the healing is instantaneous.' But in our present, still immature, discernment of the spiritual reality of being we often need specific reasoning, or argument, to realize the truth. The argument itself, however, is not the healing factor. The argument serves only the purpose of opening consciousness to the spiritual evidence of the allness of God, good.

Disease is an erroneous image of thought expressed on the body and is caused by a misunderstanding of the inseverable relationship of man to God. Denying our suppositional identification with the mortal and material, we may proceed to establish a right sense of our true relationship to the immortal, the divine. Then we experience the coincidence of the divine with the human, and healing results.

In Christian Science treatment by argument we deny the reality of a material claim of discord and maintain God's allness. We support this clear consciousness through specific rejection of the particular error involved and specific statements of truth.

Man in God's likeness has no personal, mortal mind. The healer must give up the belief that wrong thinking is either his thinking or that of the patient. Error, or evil, has no identity. The wrong thought suggestively claims to be the healer's thought if he accepts it. Hence all there is to be handled is a false suggestion. Only when a suggestion is accepted does it gain seeming existence.

When one excludes the mortal self as an acting agent and waits, humbly listening to God, the truth needed begins to speak to him. In other words, one does not use the truth for a preconceived result but instead lets the truth use him. The truth comes directly from God, who is Truth. False thinking is impersonal, unreal, nothing. After Truth has uncovered its suppositional claim, we give error the finishing stroke by realizing that man never is or was exposed to it, since the claim is and was false and powerless-hence no claim at all. At this stage the spiritual evidence appears in consciousness. One sees the perfect truth instead of the problem.

To the degree that the material concept of being is disappearing, the fuller light of Truth appears, revealing the original, Godwilled, spiritual creation. The human self has a relation to the immortal, to Spirit, God, for it includes some of the divine qualities. To become aware of this relation destroys the falsely accepted relation of the self to the mortal and material. Christian Science does not ignore human life but severs its relation to materiality and mor

tality and reestablishes its relation to the

divine.

The highest sense of treatment is the consciousness of absolute divine Lovewithout argument. Christ Jesus very likely accomplished his marvelous healings by this absolute understanding. Didn't he say, just before raising Lazarus: "Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me"? Mrs. Eddy states, "If the Scientist reaches his patient through divine Love, the healing work will be accomplished at one visit, and the disease will vanish into its native nothingness like dew before the morning sunshine." 4

Creation is immeasurable. If our thinking becomes clearer through unreserved acknowledgment and daily living of spiritual perfection, we will perceive with increasing immediacy the effect of this higher understanding. In this clear realization we will see man in his true nature as the flawless, complete idea of the divine Mind, as the child of a loving Father-Mother God.

The real man is healthy and pure through all eternity. Could the intent of divine Love ever be anything but to sustain its beloved child in harmony and whole

ness? Health and uprightness are the true conditions of man, whose consciousness and substance are incorporeal. The recognition of the spiritual perfection of man is expressed in physical healing when the human consciousness is touched by divine Love.

We seek the kingdom of God. The unreserved acknowledgment, in thought and action, of spiritual perfection is the way in Christian Science. That means to ascribe all power and presence to God and to reject all evidence of inharmony. It also means to cease indulging self-will and destructive criticism. It means to love unselfishly, see selfishly, see our neighbor as well as ourselves in our true identity as the children of God. We should endeavor to keep our standard of thinking about ourselves, our fellow beings, and our surroundings always on the level of spiritual, metaphysical treatment.

God created man whole, sinless, perfect. Christ Jesus came into this world to teach. and prove this health and wholeness. The demonstration of the Christ, Truth, in our consciousness, whether through specific argument or immediate realization of omnipotent, divine Love, heals sin, sickness, and death.

1 Isa. 30:15; 2 Science and Health, p. 411; 3 John 11:41, 42; 4 Science and Health, p. 365.

Feeding Our Children

FRANCES L. SMART

"When can I find time to read the lesson with the children?" is a question often asked by parents. If they realize that the Bible Lessons in the Christian Science Quarterly, read daily with their small children, is their children's needed spiritual meat, the time is found as easily as the time for three meals daily.

Health, protection, happiness, and suc

cess come with the unfolding of a child's spiritual understanding gained through the regular study and application of divine Science.

Each family must decide how much of the lesson should be read with the children and when to read it. Before the ordinary functions of the day begin is usually the preferred time for religious study. Starting