Harry C. Browne, C.S., of New York City
Member of the Board of Lectureship of The
Mother Church,
The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts
Harry C. Browne, C. S., of New York City, lectured on "Christian Science: The Gospel of the Comforting Christ," Tuesday evening in the Murat theatre under the auspices of Fourth Church of Christ, Scientist. The speaker was introduced by Clifford R. Nysewander.
The lecturer spoke substantially as follows:
How happily most of us respond to good news, and how some become depressed at the bad! Good news comforts, strengthens, and refreshes us. Wearily everyone wants to hear good news; and it goes without saying that you have come here tonight expecting to hear good news about God and His Christ.
To many people uninstructed as to true goodness, what seems good news to one may be evil news to another, and the evil may seem good. Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered and founded Christian Science, states in one of her books, "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 13), "Seek the Anglo-Saxon term for God, and you will find it to be good; then define good as God, and you will find that good is omnipotence, has all power; it fills all space, being omnipresent; hence, there is neither place nor power left for evil.
Good, or God's news, must also be true news, for God and Truth are one. "The Lord he is God; there is none else beside him," the Bible encouragingly assures us. Naturally, then, all evil or bad news must be false and untrue, possessing neither power nor actuality, presence nor intelligence.
The truth about God which Christian Science reveals rouses the dormant understanding of those who are disappointed and weary with earth's falsities. For this truth consists of the provable, understandable, spiritual facts about God, man, and the universe, and the Holy Bible is filled with promises of God's guidance and care to those who love and worship Him understandingly. Christ Jesus said, "God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." Can there be any doubt, then, that it becomes our privilege as Christians to worship the Father "in spirit and in truth"? We must do this if we are to experience the blessings of health and prosperity promised by God. Christian Science is alone capable of permanently comforting suffering humanity and pointing the way to everlasting peace and glory. Why? Because Christian Science presents the gospel of Christ, the spiritual idea of God, who is "infinite Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love" (Science and Health, p. 465).
In the New Testament we read of Jesus and his disciples preaching the gospel and healing the sick. We also note that men are lovingly commanded to believe in the gospel and to publish or circulate it. The word "gospel," you may recall, comes to us from the German words "Gottspiel," or "God story," and later pronounced "Gott spell," from which we derive the present word gospel. It means literally good tidings or good news; the news about God, about His Christ or Son, and about our real, spiritual selfhood as that son. It is of this Christ that I bring you comforting news tonight.
The version of the Bible which Christian Scientists use, known as the King James, has held first place in the affections of mankind throughout three centuries as the gospel to which men may confidently turn and find help for every need. The good news first made known to men is the inspired declaration of Moses, that man and the universe are the work of God, who, according to the first chapter of Genesis, created man in His own image and likeness, and saw everything that He had made to be "very good."
But in the second chapter of Genesis there is the record of a different creation, the mythical story of Adam or mortal man created out of the dust of the ground. Can both be true? Mrs. Eddy says (Science and Health, p. 522), "This second record unmistakably gives the history of error in its externalized forms, called life and intelligence in matter" but she definitely assures us that this state of things is "temporary." For the Christian Science textbook says (Science and Health, p. 287), "The five material senses testify to truth and error as united in a mind both good and evil." The good news is that "their false evidence will finally yield to Truth, to the recognition of Spirit and of the spiritual creation."
Where did this bad news originate? Well, it is like asking, "Where did four and four is nine come from?" It never originated as a reality, and in the light of Christian Science the whole history of material creation is the lie of the carnal mind, the "mist" which went up from the earth. As Mrs. Eddy says in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 30), "'There went up a mist from the earth [matter];' and the mist of materialism will vanish as we approach spirituality, the realm of reality; cleanse our lives in Christ's righteousness; bathe in the baptism of Spirit, and awake in His likeness." This account of spiritual creation given us in Chapter 1 of Genesis, understood as the truth of being, protects us from the unreal inroads of materialism, which are the underlying causes of all sin, disease, and death.
To Moses came also God's revelation of the Ten Commandments, through obedience to which men learn to know God and His goodness to the children of men.
Later, because Isaiah was hungering for the knowledge of God, God revealed to this prophet the Christ, the spiritual idea of God, of whom he said, "The government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace," Isaiah said, "there shall be no end." Truly, good news, indeed!
Fulfillment of this prophecy is found in the New Testament. It was first heralded by the angels to the watchful shepherds in Bethlehem: "Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord."
So came Jesus, "the human herald of Christ, Truth," Mrs. Eddy states (Science and Health, Pref., p. vii), preaching the healing gospel of Christianity, revealing the kingdom of heaven at hand. Jesus' understanding of this truth enabled him to destroy the errors of disease, sin, and death. Jesus came illustrating the coincidence between cause and effect. Cause and effect can be traced through every action of Jesus' ministry. For example, he saw the nothingness of mortal mind or matter body, and saw cause as divine Mind, and health resulted. For supply he saw Mind as substance, as cause, source source of all that is and needs were met. For joy he turned to Spirit as cause, for joy is spiritual. For Life he turned to Spirit, God, as cause, for he said, "It is the spirit that quickeneth [giveth life]; the flesh profiteth nothing."
Jesus' earthly experience was brief to human sense, but behold the glorious revelation given us in Jesus' scientific healing work of three years!
Jesus knew through the understanding of the Christ that God's creation is spiritual, not material. This teaching and the healing proofs he gave of his teaching so enraged the scholastic theologians of his time that they brought about his crucifixion.
Thus came the sad news of the crucifixion of Jesus, and God's kingdom indeed seemed dark and even lost; but suddenly there broke the good news of Jesus' resurrection from the tomb, followed later by his glorified ascension. Jesus' demonstration over death and the grave, even more than all his teachings, inspired his students to become his followers in deed as well as in name, for they, too, preached the gospel of salvation and did many healing works.
What comforting news Christ Jesus brought to a suffering world, bound by ritualism, creed, ignorance, and sin! But there was still more good news which the people of his time were not spiritually prepared to receive. He frankly told his disciples, "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth," and again, "And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever." Jesus desired his disciples to look to the Christ, Truth, the Messiah, rather than to his person for the healing, comforting presence of God.
And finally, we read in Revelation, the last book of the Bible, the good news of the woman who would bring forth the man-child the spiritual idea of God destined to rule all the nations of the world, fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah. It is the great privilege of the people of this age to witness the appearing of the Christ through the inspired teachings of Mary Baker Eddy in the healing of sickness and sin. This good news is Christian Science, revealing the Comforter, the Christ, Truth, which leads us into all truth and establishes the kingdom of God within us. Science reveals this "withinness." In Mrs. Eddy's words (Science and Health, p. 476), "'The kingdom of God is within you;' that is, Truth and Love reign in the real man, showing that man in God's image is unfallen and eternal." Thus, the reign of God and His comforting Christ is already with us. The truth is unfolded through the love of God.
This holy gospel of the Christ, the spiritual idea of God, has always been preached, even before the days of Jesus of Nazareth, who more than any other man exemplified the Christ, or Son of God, and Christian Science explains this Christ as "Jesus' spiritual selfhood; therefore Christ existed," Mrs. Eddy states, "prior to Jesus" (Message for 1901, p. 8).
Our Master's beloved disciple, John, affectionately wrote these words of the Christ: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved." And we are truly indebted to Mrs. Eddy for a satisfactory explanation of this invisible saving Christ and the humanly visible Jesus. Let me quote directly from her textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 333): "The advent of Jesus of Nazareth marked the first century of the Christian era, but the Christ is without beginning of years or end of days. Throughout all generations both before and after the Christian era, the Christ, as the spiritual idea, the reflection of God, has come with some measure of power and grace to all prepared to receive Christ, Truth."
Mrs. Eddy also gives us figurative explanation of God and Christ and man when she writes (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 344): "If we say that the sun stands for God, then all his rays collectively stand for Christ, and each separate ray for men and women. God the Father is greater than Christ, but Christ is 'one with the Father,' and so the mystery is scientifically explained. There can be but one Christ."
The spiritual idea of God, or Christ, has for many centuries been gradually unfolding itself to the human consciousness through the activity of the divine Mind. In the degree that all evil, wickedness, sickness, and death, the carnal mind, spoken of by Paul as "enmity against God," is seen for what it is enmity against God it is good news, for we know that it is no part of the reality of being, as it is not found in the all-inclusiveness of God, good.
By the very nature of evil or matter, however, it must eventually destroy itself, for it opposes itself, in belief, to the life-giving, perpetuating, harmonizing spiritual qualities of God. All that seems to be antagonistic to God and His Son or Christ is classified as anti-Christ. John makes the following explanation in the Bible: "He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son. Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: [but] he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also."
How grateful we are that God's Christ does live among us, and we are receiving many blessings from him. For the Christ-consciousness, healing sickness and destroying sin, is the sunshine of Love, banishing the darkness of earth. Love does not dwell in isolation. Love goes forth arm in arm with all the sons and daughters of God. The radiance of Love glows full-orbed in the freedom of man.
One of the helps to acquiring the consciousness of the Christ, or Truth, is the quality of expectancy. The Psalmist David said, "My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him." No matter what evil may try to make as believe, right where the evidence before the physical senses is most discouraging and depressing, there is our heavenly Father-Mother God, "which seeth in secret," tenderly caring for us. Christian Science opens our consciousness to be constantly expectant of the ever-present spiritual good which exists in unlimited abundance. Spiritual goodness is all there really is, and includes health and prosperity, freedom and joy. We cannot really expect from God anything but good, and this expectancy finds expression in improved conditions of every kind. We should expect health, expect success, expect victory, expect salvation, for these are qualities of the divine Mind, or Christ constantly being expressed as man.
A Christian Science practitioner called one day upon a family which had become her neighbor. She found a mother and small daughter, the latter so crippled with infantile paralysis that she had to use crutches, and the condition of her feet prevented her wearing shoes. The child's affliction seemed to weigh heavily on the mother. Very wisely, but with sweet compassion, the practitioner assured her of God's loving care for all His children. The mother, however, had accepted the verdict of the doctor that there was little hope of the child's recovery. The practitioner then asked the mother if she had ever heard of Christian Science, and related several instances proving God's ability and willingness to overcome physical conditions pronounced incurable or fatal, all of which was listened to most eagerly by the child. With some more comforting words the practitioner left.
The following morning she heard a knock at her door, and upon opening it found the little girl, on crutches, carrying a bundle under her arm. The practitioner invited her into the living room and asked her to lay aside the little bundle and be seated. The child said: "I've come to ask you to tell me more about God. You said yesterday that if we understood Him better He would quickly heal us." With the child's open-minded expectancy of good, the practitioner had little difficulty feeding her consciousness with simple, helpful statements of her unity with God or good, and of her divine ability through Christ to rise above the so-called laws of contagion and disease by knowing that there was no law but God's blessed law of Life, Truth, and Love. Many healing scientific truths were explained to the child. Suddenly she stood upright on her feet without the aid of her crutches and said in great joy, "Please let me have my bundle." The practitioner complied. As the little girl excitedly opened the paper wrapping, there appeared a pair of little shoes. Before the practitioner realized it, she said, "Why, you brought your shoes!" "Yes, ma'am," said the child, "I expected God to heal me."
Oh, let there be in your thoughts such a sense of the expectancy of God's promised liberation from fear of suffering and sorrow that many will leave this lecture healed of their discords! Displace the bad news of disease, or your inability to be of help to yourselves and others, with the gospel of Love and Truth found in the Bible through Mrs. Eddy's teachings. You will find through your sincere study and practice of Christian Science that you are not helpless nor forsaken, not frustrated nor defeated, not bound nor paralyzed, but active, whole, free at all times to express your true being as the perfect, harmonious child of God.
Paul wrote to the church at Corinth: "Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God." The word "comfort," as you know is derived from two Latin words "cum" meaning "with," and "fortis" meaning "strength." Then comfort means "with strength." To comfort one in trouble with words of Truth and Love quiets the anxious and fearful mortal thought, and restores one's God-given, normal, natural strength and peace. And we who have been comforted of God should comfort others with reassuring words of His goodness and mercy. We must replace their thoughts of grief, sin, fear, weakness, or pain, with the comforting thoughts of joy, holiness, and harmony.
God created us in His likeness to express His divine, loving nature, and we do this as we encourage cheer, sustain, correct, and inspire with comforting words of Truth and Love those who are fearful, willful, disobedient. But unless we constantly and consistently use our God-given talent for comforting, we may lose it, for we are admonished wisely by Christ Jesus that the one unused talent is taken away. God's man, your real self, needs no comforting, but the human or mortal self, uninstructed by Science in the Word of God, certainly does need it.
We read in the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes, Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shall find it after many days." In other words, good thoughts and deeds, put into circulation, will some day find their way back to us.
According to the dictionary, "circulation" means "the act of moving around, or sending from place to place." But spiritually understood circulation means activity of thoughts or ideas. As ideas or good thoughts originate in Mind or God and are constantly being expressed by man, their circulation cannot really be impeded, stagnated, or obstructed. Our work at present is to keep active in thought those qualities of Christian character which enable us to unfold to our true selfhood.
In the article, "One Cause and Effect," found in "Miscellaneous Writings (p. 22), Mrs. Eddy says that "all true thoughts revolve in God's orbits: they come from God and return to Him;" so, naturally, as we pattern this divine activity and cast the bread of Life, the words of Truth and Love, upon the waters of mortal, human experience, we shall find it returning and blessing us after many days. Jesus himself stated substantially that he came from God and returned to God (John 16:28), and our Master saw clearly the necessity for circulating through human demonstration the qualities of Christ which unfolded his unity with God, and by parables and healings he maintained his Christly mission as the Way-shower. Let me read to you from the twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew's Gospel what is considered one of the most illuminating passages of the Bible, illustrating the connection of Christly deeds with God's appreciation and approval.
"When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:
And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:
And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:
Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.
Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?
When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?
Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?
And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me."
As we practice the Golden Rule doing unto others as we would have them do unto us, we shall complete the spiritual, divine contact, whereby we feel the warmth of God's love, the power of His truth, and the light of His Word. And we readily agree that counterfeits and limitations are nonconductors of God's thoughts to man.
The transmission of good thoughts is from God, and as we steadfastly refuse to circulate evil thoughts, that is, giving them neither power nor room in our thinking, we become aware only of the circulation of good. Good circulation is considered by the materialists an evidence or sign of health in the body. We do not, however, have good health because we have good circulation. On the contrary, we have good circulation because we have good health. "Health," Christian Science explains (Science and Health, p. 120), "is not a condition of matter, but of Mind." Health, then, is our normal, natural state as God's reflection. As we humanly think or ponder good thoughts, we aid and accelerate the circulation of Truth in consciousness, and false, evil beliefs which stagnate and clog our thinking are expelled.
Suffering is caused by refusing to circulate thoughts of Truth and Love, by rebelling against God's command to love Him supremely and our neighbor as ourselves. Rebellious, resentful, stubborn, malicious, or fearful thoughts act as an obstructing, paralyzing, congesting, opposing force in the human consciousness to the oncoming stream of right ideas proceeding from God, the divine Mind, and there is consequent lack of harmony and normal activity called disease.
Impure conditions and irregular circulation in the body are the visible evidences of wrong states of consciousness. The human heart is said to be the source of circulation of the blood, but heart spiritually and scientifically understood is love, the fountainhead of right motives, unselfish desires, and high and holy purposes. Christ Jesus saw this clearly when he healed the man with the withered hand. Knowing the perfect co-ordination that existed between the motive and the act, heart and hand, he said, "Stretch forth thine hand." In other words, let your hand be motivated by good impulses, holy desires. Reach out to help others. Perhaps the man's heart as well as his hand had withered from lack of use, the result of selfishness and greed, but with the revival of thoughts of mercy, loving-kindness, generosity, and expectancy inspired by the Christliness of Jesus, there was an immediate restoration of bodily strength and activity, and "he stretched it forth; and it was restored whole, like as the other." He began to give instead of trying to get. He awakened to the place of good in giving as well as receiving, and his entire body responded to this obedience to the saying of Jesus, "It is more blessed to give than to receive." As the great truths of God's goodness are shared with others, righteous activity is manifested. The Christianly scientific giving out of hope, joy, love, affection, courage, forgiveness can melt away any seeming growth of selfishness; wash away any poisonous element of envy and hatred; can heal any cutting soreness of criticism; and can awaken us from any stupefying, apathetic manifestation of sensualism or materialism, proving Paul's vital words, "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me;" in other words, I can do all things through Christ, which comforteth me.
Christ Jesus' loving example of studious, tireless, painstaking effort to give wisely and generously of his treasures of Truth and Love to sick, sinful, suffering humanity was followed closely by Mrs. Eddy. Her biographies, written by unbiased authors, reveal a capacity for labor and wisdom equaled by few. The outpouring of her teachings, reaching and comforting world-wide humanity, returned to Mrs. Eddy in joyously beholding the successful establishment of her church with its many activities, and in her latter days she experienced the abundance of home, friends, money, and well-being. Truly, the bread which Mrs. Eddy cast upon the waters returned abundantly to bless her after many days.
Mrs. Eddy came of New England Puritan parentage. She was brought up in a God-loving atmosphere. It is not to be wondered at that Mrs. Eddy was so spiritually inclined and had such a natural desire to know God's comforting presence and power, when we consider that among the great truths she was early taught by her saintly mother were the words, "God is able to raise you up from sickness;" and again, the words of Christ Jesus: "And these signs shall follow them that believe; . . . they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover" (Science and Health, p. 359). These seeds of Truth planted in the consciousness of little Mary Baker were destined to remain for some time unfolded and unseen, for her beautiful childhood was followed by great hardships sorrow, separation, suffering, and frustration were to be her portion. But though she experienced years of invalidism and went through most trying situations, she steadfastly kept her faith in God. The seeds of good planted by her mother and father and the loving ministers of the gospel of her day, were nourished by this faith, and they finally blossomed into full flower with her instantaneous healing from what seemed to be a fatal accident in 1866. When all other mental and material means had failed her, Mrs. Eddy was raised from a bed of suffering by the comforting hand of God.
For three years after her recovery she devoted all her time to the work of discovering the Science of her healing, and as the result of this unselfish labor, the world today has the gospel of Christian Science. Christian Science offers to all mankind a demonstrable understanding of the Bible, thus proving the Bible's own teaching, and making that God-inspired volume an open book for all to read and understand. The Bible was the work of inspired men whose mentality was prepared to receive God's Word, and the Scriptures must be spiritually interpreted in order to grasp their true meaning.
Mrs. Eddy aroused world-wide disapproval when she boldly declared that the allness of God, Spirit, or Mind, revealed the nothingness of matter or evil with all its diseases, sin, and death. She knew that humanity needed to learn the falsity of all conclusions based on belief in matter, and alone she began her gigantic task of world redemption from sin and disease, satisfied in her heart that what had been God-revealed to her would be God-sustained and nourished. When we consider what she accomplished in her earthly experience, we can understand why Mrs. Eddy has been designated by disinterested persons as the outstanding woman of the twentieth century.
As we individually appreciate the great good which we have experienced as a result of Mrs. Eddy's discovery of Christian Science, as we contemplate its present far-reaching influence on public affairs and the possibilities yet to be attained of world-wide peace through her teachings, we are reminded through the words of the prophet Isaiah, "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!"
Today humanity is faced with the mighty problem of winning the war and acquiring lasting peace. The blessings of liberty have been ruthlessly taken from millions, and the Christian way of living, which our forefathers instituted and we have enjoyed, is seriously threatened. Despotic forces are trying to wreck Christian civilization with promises of a new order. These evil conspirators came into power because material prosperity had produced among our Christian nations a feeling of self-satisfaction, ease, and safety in materiality, and blind to the coming storm, we became lax and apathetic to the preservation of Christian ideals. Our spiritual standards were lowered, and evil-minded men, sensing the lessening of moral courage and Christian character, sprang into action and blitzed the weaker nations before they could awaken and protect themselves from the onslaught of engulfing materialism and paganism. Those Christian countries where God's laws are to a degree recognized, have partially awakened and are today the defenders of those less prepared nations, and the gospel of the comforting Christ preached by Jesus and spiritually interpreted by Mrs. Eddy, should be given to the whole world that all may know God, "from the least . . . unto the greatest."
The substitution of the doctrine of force for the doctrine of right, the doctrine of racial and nationalistic superiority for the doctrine of "one God and Father of all," must fail, for they express the antichrist. The history of the world shows that when a people have forgotten God and His Christ, their demoralization has begun. Mrs. Eddy assures us that "Christ, God's idea, will eventually rule all nations and peoples imperatively, absolutely, finally with divine Science" (Science and Health, p. 565). The forces of Satan are doomed, for they include only their doom and their self-destruction, and their final extermination must come through their own sin of denying the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man.
As Christian Scientists we can keep love uppermost in our hearts, even though compelled for the moment to defend ourselves against wrongdoing with material weapons in order that the evil may not destroy the good in human consciousness.
Never in the history of the world was there a greater call for consecration to the cause of scientific Christianity than there is today, and we can do no better than to follow the words of St. Paul, written nearly two thousand years ago to the Ephesians, for our suitable defense:
"Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;
And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God."
We must take a firm stand on the side of Truth, on the side of God, or good; as a loving hymn encourages us to "side with God, and win!" (Christian Science Hymnal, No. 296.) There is no other side. We must know that we fight a good fight, for "if God be for us" (and He certainly is), "who can be against us?" We must continue to know that with God's help we can put down every claim of evil to presence, power, intelligence, or activity. The task may seem difficult, the strength small, the resistance great, the temptation to stop in the middle of the fight almost irresistible. Yet ye are lovingly encouraged to endure to the end, to the end of the storm, for the evil must eventually destroy itself, leaving mankind and the world purer, holier, happier, and healthier for the experience.
Our present limited spiritual understanding of God makes it of utmost importance that we recognize our inability to do anything successfully without God's help, who, as divine Mind, maintains His spiritual universe and man in perfect, eternal harmony. The medium through which this help will come is the prayer of spiritual understanding.
Our nation was founded on faith in a supreme Being governing the universe and all mankind. "In God we trust," is found upon our coins. And it is our privilege and duty at this time to turn humbly and prayerfully to God in joyous expectancy of His continual providence and protection, not only for our nation but for all the nations of the earth. We should take time each day prayerfully to acknowledge the goodness of the kingdom of God at hand and within us. The glorious record of our men and women in the fighting forces reaching out to God for help in their great extremity, and finding Him, is the most heartening news of the war. Let us, then, know each day beginning with our chief executive down to the humblest worker in the ranks that the wisdom, power, and love of God are ever present to counsel and guide, to comfort and cheer, to bless and sustain them. We must pray also that our legislators see now the positive need to plan and formulate the great articles of peace which plans will follow the cessation of the present conflict. Too often has victory been snatched away through lack of preparation, so the peace must be as unstintingly worked and prayed for as must be the furtherance of the war effort.
Let us pray as we have never prayed before, that the Christ-spirit which animated all the Christian heroes in history, from Moses to the present generation, may be revealed to the minds of men, women, and children everywhere, opening their eyes and ears to see and hear the scientific truth of God's perfect, spiritual universe, and man holy, well, and free. Then, and not until then, will come to men that "peace of God, which passeth all understanding."
Let us awaken ourselves and others to the mighty force of the kingdom of God within us. Preach the gospel, the good news of the comforting, saving Christ, of the all-loving, all-knowing, all-wise, all-enduring, and all-mighty Father-Mother God, in whom we dwell together as one holy harmonious, free people. Let us joyfully acknowledge this God and Father of us all and His Christ, our real selfhood, but, most of all, keep before us the words the helpful words of our revered Leader in Miscellany (p. 279), which embody the rule for ending the war and establishing the peace: "The First Commandment in the Hebrew Decalogue 'Thou shalt have no other gods before me' obeyed, is sufficient to still all strife. God is the divine Mind. Hence the sequence: Had all peoples one Mind, peace would reign."
Let us all unite in this prayer for the government of the one Mind.