Articles

AT a Wednesday evening testimonial meeting some one made this statement: "Each testimony of healing is a stone in the building of our church. " Jesus declared to Simon Bar-jona that the rock of spiritual perception was the Christ-idea upon which would be built the church against which the gates of hell should not prevail, and then this disciple was given the name of Peter, signifying "a stone.

IT is a current theory that in the beatitudes Jesus intended to give formal and concise expression to his idea of the proper permanent ethical attitude of the "citizens" of the kingdom of heaven. A study of these sayings in the light of the writer's present understanding of Christian Science convinces him that this object, however prominent in the body of the Sermon on the Mount, is but secondary in the introduction to that discourse, the primary emphasis being placed on the glad tidings of the kingdom.

ETHICS has been variously defined: as "the science that offers a rational explanation of Rightness and oughtness," as "the science of right conduct," the "rational procedure by which we determine what individual human beings 'ought' or what it is 'right' for them to do," the "art of directing men's action to the production of the greatest possible quantity of happiness," as "a system of rules for regulating the actions and manners of men in society," and as "the science or art of 'right' individual conduct of men toward their fellow-men. " All of these definitions are comprehensively included in the Bible command known as the golden rule: "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE strongly emphasizes the necessity of right thinking before mankind can be happy or harmonious, and the question naturally arises, What is right thought? It is plain that the wilful sinner, the profligate, and the criminal are not right thinkers or they would not be wrong doers; but what of those who wilfully do no wrong, who maintain a high standard of morality, and yet experience suffering and misfortune? What of those whose lives are even saintly, who bless mankind by their noble works and exalted characters, and yet are afflicted with disease or disaster? How can these be said to suffer because of erroneous thought? Human thought, as is well known, is largely directed by the theories and beliefs which are handed down from generation to generation. Thought, like water, flows in the old channels until new and better ones are provided.

The morning sun is smiling through my window, And bids me rise: The birds are singing songs of life and beauty; How blue the skies! The night is spent; the shadows lose their seeming; Into my consciousness the truth is streaming! So real night seemed,—and yet I was but dreaming, And dreams are lies! I dream of sin and suffering and crying,— Heard voices call: Oh, I am lost! and one, O God, I'm dying! Help, or I fall! These idle dreams, whose warp and woof are rotten; This chaos, night, of mortal mind begotten; It ne'er was true: I only had forgotten That God is All! But night is passing with its dreams and terror, Its toil and strife: We hear above the dying din of error, The psalm of Life! The errors must unmask! The day is nearing! The angels song, though faint, is sweet and cheering; The shepherds watch for Truth's full-orbed appearing, The deathless life!

THE problem of right living is largely a problem in usefulness. This problem is two-sided.

THE sense of lack or limitation is a subtle thief that would rob the young Christian Science student of man's God-given birthright,—dominion over all the earth. —and thus, if this error be not speedily detected and summarily dealt with, delay his progress.

MUCH time has been spent in trying to prove or disprove the possibility of the occurrences related in the book of Jonah. It is not the writer's intention to take part in this argument, but to show that, no matter what conclusions may be reached as to the value of the book as historic fact, there are deep spiritual lessons to be learned from the experiences of Jonah, lessons which are of much more vital interest than any question as to whether or not the story is literally true in every detail.

HUMAN nature is much the same the world over, and the hope that my story may encourage others to investigate Christian Science prompts me to make mention of the experiences which awakened my own interest in it. My wife had been brought u among very religious people, with a strong tendency to "High Church," but at the time of which I speak she had practically lost all faith in religion, so much so that she said she could not tell the children anything about God, nor teach them the Bible, because she did not believe in it herself.

IN Matthew's Gospel we read: "And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother. up to a high mountain apart, and was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light.