In the midst of a heavy fog at sea a Christian Scientist in command of a small ship gained spiritual inspiration by observing the compass. Despite the lack of visibility the navigator was still able to maintain the ship's true course because of the unvarying attraction of the compass needle to the magnetic pole. This attraction was not affected by any condition of the weather or the sea, or by the time of the day or night, but remained always true and constant. In similar fashion Christian Science demonstrates that the perfect man, the idea of God, is only and always attracted by Spirit. As Mary Baker Eddy writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 102): "There is but one real attraction, that of Spirit. The pointing of the needle to the pole symbolizes this all-embracing power or the attraction of God, divine Mind." As we individually recognize the "all-embracing power or the attraction" of Love, we lose all sense of fear, doubt, or discouragement and express man's God-given dominion and spiritual understanding.
Since Spirit is infinite and the only power, there is in reality no supposititious attraction that can hinder spiritual progress. It is only error, or an erroneous belief, which would argue to the contrary. The only power that such a belief has is that which ignorant mortal mind mistakenly confers on it. Regardless of how real, attractive or unattractive, agreeable or disagreeable, pleasurable or painful, healthy or diseased, matter or a material belief seems to appear, it is only a lying counterfeit with no reality or Truth to support it.
The divine and fundamental fact, as proved in Science, is that God's idea is always perfect, subject to and drawn only to Spirit, the divine Mind. This Science demonstrates how we, in the language of James (4:8), can "draw nigh to God" and prove that He will draw nigh to us. We "draw nigh to God" in the degree that we recognize His oneness and our relationship to Him as spiritual ideas. As His ideas we are dependent solely on Him for our intelligence, our protection, our joy, our substance, our supply, our health, and our eternal life. The words used by Christ Jesus in one of his parables (Luke 15:31), "Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine," emphasize the eternal relationship between the Father and His children.
