An Important Message to All Members from The Christian Science Board of Directors The Board of Trustees of The Christian Science Publishing Society reported to the Annual Meeting of The Mother Church in June that The Christian Science Monitor is seriously in the red. The urgent support of our entire Field is requested in helping us carry out our plan to correct this situation. One of the first steps in this plan is to raise the Monitor's subscription price to $30.00 annually in the United States and Canada and to $28.00 annually for the London edition. Single copies will be 15 cents. This move is totally consistent with the current price trends on other leading newspapers. Effective date is October 1, 1970. We are confident the Field will support this increase. But this is only a short-term measure. The Monitor's real need is for a broader continuing circulation base. If every member of The Mother Church were to avail himself of the opportunity provided in the Manual of The Mother Church by Mary Baker Eddy to subscribe for our paper (see Art. VIII, Sect. 14), the Monitor would move a long way toward the solution of its economic challenge. We realize that one of the main reasons why many Mother Church members do not subscribe to the Monitor is that another member of the same household is already receiving it. In a good many of such instances the member has amply fulfilled the spirit of Mrs. Eddy's By-Law by sending a gift subscription to another household on a continuing basis. If all members were to do this, the Monitor and the movement would be greatly blessed, not to mention the many additional non-Christian Science households that would be reached by this healing periodical. We call upon our entire membership to give special prayerful metaphysical support to the Monitor in its hour of special need. The immense importance of this vital tool for the spiritualization of human thought that our beloved Leader has given to us cannot be emphasized too much. Neither our movement nor the world itself can afford to have the Monitor be undernourished, spiritually or economically. THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE BOARD OF DIRECTORS Healing and Self-immolation 1 If the body is a mental concept, as we learn in Christian Science, it includes not only the physical frame but the body of one's human experience, including human ties, interests, responsibilities, joys, and sorrows. Christ Jesus said, "He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal." 1 One turning from the body toward his spiritual identity as the child of God begins to experience a change of values. He comes to recognize some of the truths taught in Christian Science: that Spirit, God, is All, that the real man is Spirit's image and likeness, that therefore the material sense of self and one's dependence upon material circumstances and things are actually false beliefs. This change does not come all at once but by degrees: first, with a recognition that spiritual qualities are more dependable, more substantial than material conditions; then a glimpse here or there of the actual nothingness of some condition that seemed necessary to happiness but no longer is. But there is no void; the space is filled with spiritual substance. Self-immolation, in Christian Science, is never the elimination of something real but of what never had any reality, although from a material standpoint it may have seemed to be one's whole self. Human ties are not to be forcibly undone, but with a clarification of one's relationship to divine Mind as this Mind's idea, the binding limiting aspects of these ties begin to undo themselves, and relationships take new, more harmonious forms. Likewise, personal interests naturally change from those centered on self to those which better express the nature of divine Love. Responsibilities that burden are found to be unnecessary, and new responsibilities that are more expressive of the love and care of divine Truth appear. Joys that are temporal give way to joys that go on forever. Paul writes, "We are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: (for we walk by faith, not by sight:) we are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord."2 And Mary Baker Eddy says in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, "If we look to the body for pleasure, we find pain; for Life, we find death; for Truth, we find error; for Spirit, we find its opposite, matter. Now reverse this action. Look away from the body into Truth and Love, the Principle of all happiness, harmony, and immortality.' As we begin to obey these commands, we find the whole human sense of body disappearing from thought. But the last to disappear may be a suffering sense-pain, loneliness, confusion, a feeling of insecurity. But such a sense of life is an error thriving in human consciousness only when it has a body to thrive on. Now, because we have looked "away from the body into Truth and Love," the material sense of personality and of experience has yielded to the spiritual sense of Life, "the Principle of all happiness, harmony, and immortality." Now the suffering sense, the error, stands alone. As we persist in looking into spiritual reality, we bear witness to the confrontation of the error with Truth. And the error, being untrue, disappears. A painful condition, whether it be in the physical body or in one's family relationships or in his business, is always sustained in the body of one's thought, particularly that portion of one's thought he cherishes most. Through self-immolation one can spiritually rise above the human sense of his organized life. Then he can see the painful condition as an impersonal, bodi less suggestion—a hypnotic one-that he is free to examine in the light of what he knows of divine reality. And by persistent and prayerful study of the revelation of divine reality given us in the Bible and in the writings of Mrs. Eddy, he will come to know enough of divine reality and his own place in that reality to see that there are not two elements, good and evil, confronting one another but just one-goodbecause evil is unreal. Pain is unreal. Suffering is unreal. We cannot jump immediately into spiritual perfection, but each day's problem is our opportunity to take one more step. Any reluctance to yield is part of the mortal self, which can be immolated. We can detect this reluctance by an honest answer to the question, “What will my life and my thought be like when this healing comes?” If we would rejoice in a return to the routine we loved before the problem arose, can we say that we have become absent from the thought or body upon which the pain is thriving? Our answer determines the direction of our work, and the diligence with which we pursue new concepts of Life and self will determine the outcome. Healing through self-immolation is not a technique. The search for a procedure one can memorize and follow to gain what is needed for a healing is in itself a selfish search, a clinging to the old self, the old body where the painful condition dwells. But a pure reaching out, in meekness, in gratitude, in love for that Life which is greater than anything and everything we hold humanly dear, together with a willingness to leave all for what is eternally true, does move us forward to the point where we can see the painful condition confronting only Truth itself. And like Goliath before David, the error falls. CARL J. WELZ 1 John 12:25; 2 II Cor. 5:6-8; 3 Science and Health, pp. 260, 261. God's Gift to the Community Each year every community where a Church of Christ, Scientist, is situated receives a valuable gift-at least one lecture on the subject of the healing Christ. These annual lectures are, in fact, a gift from God. They are provided under the Rules of the Manual of The Mother Church by Mrs. Eddy and are therefore divinely inspired. In proportion as members recognize and prayerfully demonstrate that this activity of their branch church is God-inspired, Godsupplied, and God-governed, it will fulfill its redemptive purpose in the community. It will draw multitudes to it by virtue of its spiritual attraction, and be memorable for the incidents of healing and regeneration that result from it. Now that it is more than a century since Christian Science was discovered and pre sented to humanity by its Founder, Mary Baker Eddy, there is a tendency to assume that the world is acquainted with its teachings. In fact, only a very small percentage of the millions of people who populate this planet have ever heard of it. And some of these are grossly misinformed. The purpose of a Christian Science lecture is to enlighten and correct-to present the facts of God's nature as divine Principle and of the perfection of His universe including man-and to correct ignorant and malicious misconceptions prevalent in public thought concerning the method of demonstration of these divine facts in human experience. But a lecture delivered under the au thority of the divinely inspired Rules of the Manual can be expected not merely to discuss and teach the letter of Christian Science but to impart the energizing spirit of it. It is an activity of Christ, of Mind's manifestation, declaring God's nature as omnipotent, omnipresent, indestructible being. It demonstrates the activity of God's eternal love, awakening human thought to the joyful recognition of the perfect, spiritual universe at hand. 1 The Bible tells of occasions when God revealed His own nature to men. For example, Moses saw a bush that burned but was not consumed, and Christ Jesus heard a voice saying, "Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased." Through Through these incidents God made known the indestructible nature of true being and the perfection of the real man, His Son, which Jesus so ideally demonstrated humanly. These events were accompanied by spiritual exaltation and followed by great wonders of healing and liberation. Today, this activity of divine revelation continues to operate in human consciousness, both instructing and inspiring the race. God's gift of His Christ, or divine manifestation, comes anew to the world in the Christian Science lectures delivered in accordance with the provisions of the Church Manual, and we should aim to bear witness to this fact, working to ensure that each one is accompanied by a flow of uplifted, invigorating thought and is followed by healing and regeneration. Mrs. Eddy, who was first to impart the truths of Christian Science in the delivery of public lectures, writes, "Sending forth currents of Truth, God's methods and means of healing, and so spreading the gospel of Love, is in itself an eternity of joy that outweighs an hour." 2 A Christian Science lecture, then, is not basically a human activity whereby church members aim to bring enlightenment to ignorant mortals through material ways and means. It demonstrates that the Father, Himself, is here and now preparing “a table in the wilderness,' a table spread with the nourishing, energizing bread of 23 eternal Life-the spiritual ideas needed to provide comfort, health, and all that the hungry human heart desires. This does not absolve the lecturer, the lecture committee, and other members from their individual responsibility to prepare for and support it. In fact, their work is deeply demanding. It requires prayerful effort to acknowledge God's activity in all the human aspects of lecture preparation and to demonstrate His spiritual ways and means through the expression of His qualities of love, beauty, dignity, and order. Effective advertising and practical and comfortable platform and seating arrangements are necessary, but no human organization, however efficient, can generate the healing animus of divine Spirit expressed by the church members. Above all, we need to bear witness to the presence and activity of God's qualities in the presentation of His own revelation to the community and to ensure that during the hour of the lecture's delivery His qualities of wakeful intelligence, spiritual vision, and joyful receptivity to Truth are plainly evident. Mrs. Eddy writes: "Exercise more faith in God and His spiritual means and methods, than in man and his material ways and means, of establishing the Cause of Christian Science. If right yourself, God will confirm His inheritance. 'Be not weary in well doing.' One lecture committee chairman meekly confided that in order to ensure that this spiritual work is effectively done, she makes a point of taking two whole days entirely free from other duties each time her church gives a lecture. The first, the day of the members' preparatory meeting; the second, the day of the lecture. "This," she says, "prevents any instruction from our Father not being heard because of the suggestion of lack of time and protects the occasion from idle talk." Such selfless service, dedicated to the fulfillment of God's purpose, ensures that each lecture manifests the inspiration that has always been associated with God's There is nothing drab or colorless to human life when one begins to build spiritually. Even a glimpse of man's real selfhood in unity with God imparts a whole new dimension to one's experience. There is an innate vitality and buoyancy in Godlike thinking and living. This clothes the most prosaic human tasks and events in a new light. These are seen to afford constant and varied opportunities to build on the rock, Truth, and steadily develop one's spiritual understanding and capacities. To some this may seem a novel point of view because spiritual activity has been widely considered to be anything but interesting-in fact, the very epitome of all that is abstract and dull. But the materialist who thinks in these terms is being blinded by a false view of himself and his environment. And, unknown to himself, it is this very attitude that makes human life seem a tasteless and pointless series of events having no meaningful goal in sight. On the other hand, the earnest student of Christian Science has learned from experience that the scientific knowledge of God as infinite divine Love, far from being dull and abstract, is a dynamic force that heals the sick. He sees that his understanding of God can be developed as he grows in Christlikeness, as he strives to be more loving, pure, and true. This spiritual building then becomes his chief preoccupation. Through study, prayer, and Christian living the divine Mind becomes more and more substantive to his awakening thought. The student begins to feel and know himself to be in God, in all-encompassing Love, and more clearly perceives the pure spirituality of his own and others' real identities. Describing the process of spiritual development in her own experience, Mrs. Eddy writes: "I endeavored to lift thought above physical personality, or selfhood in matter, to man's spiritual individuality in God,-in the true Mind, where sensible evil is lost in supersensible good. This is the only way whereby the false personality is laid off." 1' This advanced standpoint brings its own reward. It imparts profound peace and happiness and gives zest and meaning to |