NOT until we begin to apply Christian Science do we learn what it demands of us, and then for a time perhaps only faintly. On what conditions may men find healing and happiness? "Unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required." This is imperative, and in complete harmony with the law of being and with the divine beneficence, which ever was and ever will be unlimited. What man is there who can say that God has denied him any good when he was willing to comply with the conditions? Mortal thought, it is true, is incapable of knowing what is good, and therefore men too often misjudge God, and hold Him responsible for much that is the product of the carnal mind; but it is as true today as it has been since time began, that our heavenly Father withholdeth no good thing from those who love Him. Furthermore, "he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust."
When thus reminding his hearers in his Sermon on the Mount of the Father's impartial bestowal of blessings, Jesus was unfolding a truth which must have come with startling effect, namely, that if they would know themselves as God's children, they must do what probably seemed to them an impossible thing, and what is doubtfully accepted even today. They were to love their enemies. That impersonal love, which to the Christian Scientist is the essence of spiritual consciousness or godlikeness, enables every faithful follower of the Man of Nazareth to obey this injunction, and he does this just to the extent that he is willing to subordinate self to the higher law of Love.
Paul had a great vision of the Christian's spiritual wealth. "All things are yours," he told the members of the church in Corinth, — all the things that are needed for vanquishing evil, for growing in spiritual understanding, for building up a stalwart character on the foundation of the rock, Christ, Truth. He had been reminding them of their high and holy calling. He had caught a glimpse of the spiritual man, the reflection of immortal Love; the man who is the "temple of God" and in whom the spirit of God dwells, and he had warned them of the danger of personality, saying, "Let no man glory in men," for it is God, and God alone, that "giveth the increase;" it is He alone who is the source of all good, and it is He alone who reveals unto His children the things that He has prepared for them.
