The conflict which grips the world today could be described as a struggle between that which is permanent and that which is impermanent. On one side we see thought which treasures the things of Spirit, God: the moral and spiritual values that are indestructible, trustworthy, compassionate, intelligent. On the other side we see thought which treasures matter, admits nothing beyond matter, and arrives at a state of amorality that is shifty, untrustworthy, loveless, and anything but intelligent in the right sense of that word.
The world's conflict of ideals is having the effect of intensifying real values for those who acknowledge God and the qualities and ideas which He evolves. Followers of Christ Jesus know that he was constantly stressing the need for seeking the permanent and spiritual as opposed to the temporal and material. An example of this teaching is found in the thirteenth chapter of Matthew. Here the Master shows by his parables of the kingdom of heaven the need for seeking the realm of Spirit at whatever cost or sacrifice. One parable reads (verses 45, 46), "The kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it."
According to the interpretation of Christian Science, Christ Jesus gave "all that he had." His life was an example for everyone to follow in proof that God's kingdom is the only kingdom and that the material sense of life is a delusion and a fraud. Jesus was not deceived by matter and its claim to create and sustain life, to give existence and to take it away. He looked to God as the Father of all, the Giver of permanent existence, and the only source of activity and health and intelligence. His higher knowledge of reality canceled the seeming power of the material senses. His healings and other works pointed to the need for establishing an abiding sense of God's government, not merely a temporary sense of His beneficence.
Mary Baker Eddy tells us in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (pp. 263, 264): "The fading forms of matter, the mortal body and material earth, are the fleeting concepts of the human mind. They have their day before the permanent facts and their perfection in Spirit appear." In human life, one is constantly reminded of matter's impermanence. Civilizations vanish, and new ones appear. Generations of flesh enter and leave the stage of human life. The face of the earth slowly changes. Seas shift. Rivers leave their beds for new ones, or they dry up. The very food that seems to sustain mortal life is fragile and easily spoiled.
But through all these constantly changing material conditions shines the reality of being, the simple fact of goodness ever asserting its presence, persisting and appearing with clearer brilliance as the centuries pass. Now the world has Christian Science, which delves beneath the material appearances and shows the impermanence of the false mind which produces these transitory appearances. The very flimsiness of flesh bears witness to the illusive nature of the mind that produces flesh. And this recognition helps to destroy the fear of all that the material senses seem to produce and to cognize.
Mrs. Eddy says in "Unity of Good" (p. 8): "It is dangerous to rest upon the evidence of the senses, for this evidence is not absolute, and therefore not real, in our sense of the word. All that is beautiful and good in your individual consciousness is permanent. That which is not so is illusive and fading." This clear distinction between the real and the unreal spurs one on to a greater effort to reject the testimony of the mind that is not God and to accept as substantial only that which is of Spirit.
Christian Science inspires one to unveil in his own consciousness the indestructible qualities and ideas that constitute man, made in God's likeness. Every stir of justice, wisdom, mercy, truthfulness, that one expresses should be valued as a permanent endowment that points to the infinitude of man's heritage. Too often a clear separation is not made between the transitory and the eternal, and this flaw in thinking deprives one of the power which accompanies pure, spiritual thought.
The time has come when matter must lose its value as substance, and Christliness must come fully into its own as the aim of humanity. The worth of individuals and nations must be gauged by the standards of reliability, good will for all, generosity, co-operativeness, peaceableness, which they express.
The amorality which is outside the sphere of thought in which moral values rule human behavior may become more aggressive as material beliefs break up. But that which has no foundation in God is certain to be proved incapable of sustaining the attention of mankind. The conscience of mankind is permanent and is sure to come to the surface of thought to govern the individuals that make up nations.
That which is permanent cannot be obscured indefinitely. Reality is destined to endure. Truth holds within itself the power to make itself understood, and it urges its claims resistlessly. To the Romans, Paul quoted the prophet (14:11), "As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me."
What the human race needs is what Christian Science is supplying: the ability to look beyond insubstantial matter to Spirit's substantiality. Paul saw this great need, and he said (II Cor. 4:18), "We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal."
True ideals are the unseen, the spiritual and enduring things of God. The thoughtful Christian Scientist is willing to drop his belief in the actuality of matter and to make his contribution to the well-being of society through the spirituality he expresses. He values above all that which will impress the world with the permanent values of Christliness. Mrs. Eddy sets the goal when she writes in Science and Health (p. 264): "Mortals must look beyond fading, finite forms, if they would gain the true sense of things. Where shall the gaze rest but in the unsearchable realm of Mind?"
