When Jesus sent forth his disciples as Christian missionaries he told them to preach that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. But he also told them to prove that it is at hand, for the Way-shower added (Matt. 10:8), "Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give." Today the Christ, speaking through Christian Science, calls upon its followers to preach and prove the healing and saving power of Truth in their daily lives. "Freely ye have received, freely give."
To fulfill our mission as Christian Scientists it is necessary to obey the law of God, and as a result we experience the healing signs in our own lives and help others to experience them. In an address to the Annual Meeting of The Mother Church in 1899 Mary Baker Eddy emphasizes the importance of the fulfillment of divine law when she tells her followers that the real substance of their demonstration is the expression of love and gratitude in their lives. She writes (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, pp. 131, 132), "And may I say with the consciousness of Mind that the fulfilment of divine Love in our lives is the demand of this hour—the special demand."
The demand of this hour, and indeed the special demand, is the expression of divine Love in our every thought and deed. This requires us to give up love of material selfhood—personal desires, false appetites, and selfish affections—to give up a material sense of existence. But are we willing to do this?
