Today's widespread demand for political and economic reform, for social justice, and for a wider margin of individual well-being and security, expresses one of the deepest and most persistent of human longings. Dissatisfied with their present plight, men have looked for "new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness;" but, with rare exceptions, the gaze has not been turned in the right direction.
In the main, men have looked objectively for this ideal condition of justice, peace, plenty, and security, the condition commonly referred to as the millennium. They have earnestly striven to bring about the millennium by the introduction of some new social order, some improved political system, some economic rearrangement. Since the time of Plato and his "Republic" many schemes for the improvement of the social order have been proposed, and not a few experiments to this end have been tried. While some of these have attained a measure of success, they have not accomplished their avowed purpose. It is unlikely that present-day experiments, lacking a spiritual basis, will succeed where similar efforts in the past have failed.
From the repeated failure of mankind to set up the perfect social order objectively, we need not conclude that humanity's longing for all that is good must end in disappointment and despair. Nor should we fail to appreciate efforts to improve the lot of mankind by the institution of honestly conceived social reforms. On the contrary, we should welcome and encourage them, knowing that eventually, through Christian Science, will come the day of perfect understanding, when "the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea."
