of Spirit, the benevolent intelligence of Mind and Love, the beauty and delicacy of Soul, the systematic control and direction of Principle.

What of the possibility of life on other planets or in other galaxies? If there are little, purple creatures or large, green beings or perhaps odd vegetable life on other planets, these represent, or are the embodiments of, mortal illusions of life just as much as earthly trees or beings. Real Life is God, is everywhere, and is expressed in living, spiritual ideas. Animal or vegetable life, whether here on earth or in a world a billion light-years away, is illusory life. And the form of that so-called life would depend on the vagaries of mortal mind, which is susceptible to any phase of belief.

In an interview in 1901, Mrs. Eddy was asked what she thought of "the pursuit of modern material inventions." She replied: "Oh, we cannot oppose them. They all tend to newer, finer, more etherealized ways of living. They seek the finer essences. They light the way to the Church of Christ. We use them, we make them our figures of speech. They are preparing the way for us." 4

"Modern material inventions" are making possible the wonderful, breathtaking human adventure of space exploration. What of Spirit exploration? All Christian Scientists, all adherents of divine metaphysics, are engaged in deeply significant spiritual exploration. Many of the achievements of physics and technology are to be applauded. We admire and respect them, we utilize them. But above and beyond. these achievements are the realities of divine metaphysics.

Metaphysics is destined to succeed physics, which will have its final day. When this transformation will be completed is unknown; but through Christian Science we can enjoy it, at least in part, today. The Science of Christ is ushering each of us now into the eternal day of metaphysics, the day of spiritual reality. Christ Jesus lived in that ever-here day and demonstrated the unlimited nature of spiritual being. Mrs. Eddy saw that day, and her writings and works and the church she established are quickening its dawning.

1 Christian Healing, p. 11; 2 Isa. 45:12; Science and Health, p. 484; 4 The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 345.

Progress in Church

JAMAE WOLFRAM RICHARDSON

The church institution is a proving ground for those who have "named the name of Christ." Recognizing this, one is not impatient at the problems that arise in church to be solved. These are the tests of church, as well as of individual, growth. The church institution becomes to each student of Christian Science the proving ground where, through serving, he attains greater and greater heights of spirituality, service, humbleness, brotherhood, healing. Mrs. Eddy writes, "He who has named the

name of Christ, who has virtually accepted the divine claims of Truth and Love in divine Science, is daily departing from evil; and all the wicked endeavors of suppositional demons can never change the current of that life from steadfastly flowing on to God, its divine source.'

1

How wonderful it is to see growth take place! It must take place; God's law requires it. The real man and the true Church, of course, are not subject to material growth, struggles, toil, and so

forth. They are safe in God, flawless, forever unfolding from the basis of His infinitude. But this truth must be proved in the church member's experience.

The true "Church" is defined by Mrs. Eddy as "the structure of Truth and Love; whatever rests upon and proceeds from divine Principle.' ."2 One never has to go outside himself to improve or enlarge his sense of Church. In his own thinking one must reduce to nothingness the errors that seem to hide Church, errors that may be manifest in the institutional church: apathy, self-centeredness, envy, deception, factionalism, ambition, conservatism, domination. One tells himself the truth concerning each lie he sees; and only when he has seen its nothingness and God impels him does he speak of it to another. How important it is that every church member repeatedly ask himself what God is telling him about his church or his fellow church members and then listen to God!

It helps one to remember that the church can go forward only as rapidly as its collective membership is ready. One can never force a fellow member to see what he is not ready to see. He will always act from the standpoint of his own experience until God lifts him up to see something higher. But the church is where real brotherhood is wrought out in hand clasping hand, replacing weakness with strength, doubt with confidence, and instability with a greater measure of spiritual stillness and power.

The more experienced worker's privilege is to discern that the perfect spiritual idea, Church, is represented by the human institution, affirm that the law which governs the spiritually real governs the human sense of things as well, and then, willingly, humbly wait for the Father to make each heart ready. If a church membership seems to be going in the wrong direction, it is often the alert worker's task to sound the warning quietly and then confidently know that God does not permit His children to make mistakes.

It is comforting and healing to realize

that sooner or later the law of right enforces itself. Experience in church work has confirmed to the writer the fact that wrong of any kind is self-defeating, that in God's time and in His tender, protecting way, right will prevail, and that, in the process, many vital lessons will be learned.

In making practical the truth we know, it is helpful for us to pray that neither an individual nor a church body will take a position that has not been reached through earnest prayer and then merely say: "God will take care of it; Love will supply the need." We cannot push ahead to do something, even something that seems obviously right, until we have taken each step in order and proved our way. One cannot take the kingdom of heaven by storm. Such zeal is without knowledge and often involves a costly retracing of steps.

"3

What can help us more than steadfastly adhering to those laws which make a divine idea humanly apparent? As stated by Christ Jesus they are: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.' And the highest love is to acknowledge no other law, intelligence, activity, consciousness, substance, truth, or love than that which comes from God and to recognize divine supremacy, God's allness, and the nothingness of whatever is unlike Him. Without this, what we do for church becomes mere motion without Christliness and power. How important that our church work be done with all our heart! This great love for God is made practical in love for man: first, for one's neighbor, one's fellow church member, and then for all the world.

Are we critical of our fellow workers because we expect more from them? Heed Paul's advice, "Wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself." The highest criticism, or judgment, discovers all the excellences of the sons of God. It discerns the fullness of the bloom that is yet hidden in the bud.

With what a flood of tender thought w

should think of every church member and with what joy we should behold the unblemished, imperturbable, indestructible spiritual selfhood of each one! With glad trust in the Father, to whom all belong, we should affirm that the truth that meets all needs is present with each one, active in each consciousness. No worldliness, no brittle intellectualism, no sorrow or loss, no fear, can ever separate even one individual from Love's care or nullify Love's law of progress and fruition operating in his experience. With deep peace we should affirm that God, who has brought us all to the light, will be with us all each step

of the way, will open our eyes and conform our lives to Truth's full radiance and glory.

Love is our key to progress. All forward steps in church work are based on this profound and challenging fact. It includes the desire or beginning, the means or unfoldment, and the end or accomplishment. It demands much effort, much prayer and self-discipline. It promises the fulfillment of our goals in full measure. And it prophesies the time when the one universal Church is established in each heart.

1 Miscellaneous Writings, p. 19; 2 Science and Health, p. 583; Matt. 22:37, 39; Rom. 2:1. 3 4

ALICE WILT STRAUSS

Without the unified purpose, thought, and effort of everyone involved in the Apollo program, landing men on the moon could never have been achieved. The success of the undertaking is credited to the dedication of every individual who had a part in it, however great or small.

If a moon mission can be brought to fulfillment in the physical world through unified effort, how much more should Christian Scientists be able to accomplish a spiritual goal if they dedicate themselves to achieving unity of thought and activity! Mrs. Eddy says: "Unity is the essential nature of Christian Science. Its Principle is One, and to demonstrate the divine One, demands oneness of thought and action." 1

We have, today, the privilege of seeing the Christian Science Church Center taking shape, rising to a fuller demonstration of the purpose of Church. This Church Center stands for much more than a group of beautiful buildings. It is proof of the growing demand for greater utiliza

tion of Christian power in healing not only sickness but every problem confronting a troubled world.

Expanding the activities of The Mother Church in serving mankind and facilitat ing this expansion fulfills the continuing Christ-mission, the perpetual unfolding of spiritual ideas for full salvation of all mankind from the fraudulent claims of a power or consciousness opposed to God.

This purpose is in accord with God's directive in the book of Isaiah, "Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes; for thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited."

And because this purpose is in fulfillment of the divine demand, we can realize that it cannot be resisted, delayed, or obstructed. Let us unite in working to know that no claim of opposition can in any way interfere with the progressive unfoldment

and manifestation of the Christ-mission as exemplified in the Church Center project. The idea represented by the Church Center is already complete in Mind, established by divine Principle and governed by Principle's unchanging laws. Just as the laws of physics governing the flight of a spacecraft were not suddenly invented or created but were discovered and utilized, so the spiritual laws of divine Principle have only to be recognized and applied in the continuous development of unified healing activity.

Mrs. Eddy explains progressive unfoldment this way: "Spirit, God, gathers unformed thoughts into their proper channels, and unfolds these thoughts, even as He opens the petals of a holy purpose in order that the purpose may appear."

"3

The Christian Science Church Center exemplifies this channeling of "unformed thoughts" and their unfoldment for "a holy purpose." To see this divine purpose brought into complete fulfillment is a goal to which the members of The Mother Church have dedicated themselves. How can they do their part?

Many years ago when making application for membership in a branch Church of Christ, Scientist, I was asked if I would support the church physically, metaphysically, and financially. All of us may not be able to participate physically in our Church Center project. But we can give it our consecrated metaphysical and financial support, turning to Mind for inspiration and recognizing God as the infinite source of supply.

We

When David prepared the way for his son Solomon to build a house to God, love impelled him to give bountifully of his own riches over and above all that he had prepared from the national revenues. read that the people, too, "rejoiced, for that they offered willingly, because with perfect heart they offered willingly to the Lord." David recognized that their offerings were not personal gifts. He saw them as coming from God, the only source of supply.

"4

He saw himself and the people as instruments through which this supply was made manifest.

In offering his prayer of gratitude he said: “Who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort? for all things come of thee.

...

O Lord our God, all this store that we have prepared to build thee an house for thine holy name cometh of thine hand, and is all thine own.'

David and his people had a unified purpose, and their high goal was achieved in due time through Solomon. We too have a unified purpose. Through our metaphysical and financial contributions, "offered willingly," we can rejoice as we see evidence of spiritual renewal in the expanding activities of The Mother Church.

Our Leader, Mrs. Eddy, reminds us: "Every day makes its demands upon us for higher proofs rather than professions of Christian power. These proofs consist solely in the destruction of sin, sickness, and death by the power of Spirit, as Jesus destroyed them. This is an element of progress, and progress is the law of God, whose law demands of us only what we can certainly fulfil." 5

As the world is forced to become more and more aware of what Christian Science is and what it is accomplishing for mankind, the carnal mind tends to become more resistant to Christ, Truth. It would try in whatever way possible to impede its establishment. The devil, or error, demands to be let alone. It would cry out against the Christ-power, as in this account. from Luke: "And in the synagogue there was a man, which had a spirit of an unclean devil, and cried out with a loud voice, saying, Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us?" 6

But just as Christ Jesus proved the unclean devil to be powerless, so can we prove the resistance of the carnal mind powerless. There is, in reality, only one Mind, and this Mind is not carnal. This

Resistance to Truth may appear in various forms, but it all stems from the same source, a lie. It is not person. It is nothing but a false belief claiming to use material personality as an instrument through which to manifest itself as disunity, resentment, lawlessness, and defiance of that which would destroy the lie. We should pray to see clearly that because man, the image and likeness of God, is the expression of Love, no individual can be made a tool for expressing anything unlike Love. Every idea of Mind is a complete embodiment of spiritual qualities only. Conse

quently there is no resistant mortal. Man is loving and obedient to divine law.

As each one of us holds to these truths and realizes that the purpose of the church -The Mother Church and every branch Church of Christ, Scientist, throughout the world-is to heal and save, he can do much to help solve the great problems of the world today. The increasing Christly demand for fulfilling the purpose of the church unfolded the concept of the Christian Science Church Center. To see this expansion brought to fruition in orderly, harmonious activity is our unified purpose, our high goal.

"The spirit and the letter"

CHARLES WILLIAM SMITH

Many high school and college courses are characterized by laboratory work as well as formal instruction. In classroom study the textbook is read and explained. Lectures are delivered by experienced authorities. Regular, individual study is essential; outside reading and reference work are encouraged. In the laboratory sessions, rules learned from study are put to use. Students prove how these basic rules work by actually applying them in a more natural environment.

Progress in Christian Science also follows from study and practice. Individual preparation in this Science takes many forms. These include studying the LessonSermon in the Christian Science Quarterly, daily if possible, reading the authorized periodicals, attending Christian Science lectures and church services, doing work with the Concordances to the Bible and the writings of Mrs. Eddy, even read

ing historical accounts of the founding of the movement.

However, learning is not fruitful without "lab work." By this is meant the demonstration of God's allness in our human activity in guidance, regeneration, and healing. It means constantly living in ac cordance with the letter, even if not working to meet a specific need. We do this by consciously showing ourselves to be what our study indicates we really are, expressing God's qualities as His image, being humble, helping others, standing for Principle, and, above all, by loving.

Studying the letter and living the spirit are both necessary. One without the other is not enough. Don't we all know someone warm and loving who is not a student of Christian Science? Might we not think, "Oh, how completely he expresses goodness. If only he knew what it means in Science to take up the cross and drink of