A People's culture clearly reflects its thinking. Where God and His Christ have been acknowledged and an effort has been made to train and refine human consciousness according to Christian standards, intellectual, moral, and spiritual vigor has characterized mankind. For many centuries Christian culture has been slowly evolving in many nations. Persistent paganistic influences have been gradually giving place to spiritual enlightenment shown in increased respect for the individual, mercy in caring for mankind's needs, achievement in the natural sciences, integrity in economic development, justice in the formulation and execution of laws.
While much has still to be accomplished before humanity attains the Christly ideals established by Jesus, yet Christian culture is distinctive, and it demonstrates the kingdom of heaven, in which those ideals obtain. Christian Science has come to the world as the culmination of centuries of Christianity, ever unfolding God's kingdom, ever developing to human thought the eternally established order of being, in which Spirit is the only creator and governor and man is a spiritual identity, not a fleshly mortal.
The healings which accompany the practice of divine Science are the highest evidence of Christian culture. Sometimes called miracles by the uninformed, these healings are proofs of the universal operation of divine laws. In "Miscellaneous Writings," Mary Baker Eddy says (p. 29): "Miracles are no infraction of God's laws; on the contrary, they fulfil His laws; for they are the signs following Christianity, whereby matter is proven powerless and subordinate to Mind. Christians, like students in mathematics, should be working up to those higher rules of Life which Jesus taught and proved."
