It is generally conceded that humanity is passing through times as unsettled and uncertain as any in its history. To human sense, there are "wars and rumours of wars,"Matt. 24:6; oppression, fear, distrust, and materiality abroad in the world. Christian Scientists are finding a divine refuge from apprehension and tension in a spiritual understanding of the all-governing Mind, God.
The world seems to be providing an inverted version of this refuge in material escapism, in a proliferation of distractions and entertainments ranging from television programs to sport and light literature; and many people are unquestioningly accepting what the world proffers. Christian Science does not advocate asceticism, nor does it decry a healthy interest in sports or constructive entertainment. But if indulged in indiscriminately, these distractions may become, in effect, drugs which fog the intellect and induce spiritual dullness.
Mrs. Eddy describes in "No and Yes" how the Master, Christ Jesus, handled the pressures of the material world. She writes: "The real Christ was unconscious of matter, of sin, disease, and death, and was conscious only of God, of good, of eternal Life, and harmony. Hence the human Jesus had a resort to his higher self and relation to the Father, and there could find rest from unreal trials in the conscious reality and royalty of his being,—holding the mortal as unreal, and the divine as real. It was this retreat from material to spiritual selfhood which recuperated him for triumph over sin, sickness, and death."No., p. 36;
