At a time when world consciousness is torn by conflicting influences—good and bad, seen and unseen—the serious thinker might well ponder the word "influence." Its meaning could be summarized as the power to produce an effect. Certainly an influence is known by its effects, and today we see many effects, which might cause us to believe in many kinds of influences. People suffer and people are healed through influences. Education, culture, ethics, reflect influences to which humanity responds. And not only people but all nature exhibits influences that often are little understood.
The word "influence" is used repeatedly by the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, in reference to the activity of Truth and error in human consciousness. Its application extends all the way from the diabolic to the sublime. But at the same time Christian Science enables us to understand influence in a higher context, and then we see it as divine.
Consider Mrs. Eddy's use of the word in the Preface of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, where, speaking of the mighty works of spiritual healing performed today as in Christ Jesus' time, she says, "They are the sign of Immanuel, or 'God with us,'—a divine influence ever present in human consciousness and repeating itself, coming now as was promised aforetime,
