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We herewith publish another valuable judicial decision relating to the status of Christian Scientists before the law. We deem the able argument of counsel in this case of sufficient interest to warrant publication of the synopsis furnished us.
Do we forget sometimes in Christian Science to be grateful for all the blessings we have received through this wonderful Truth? Do we remember always to thank God for His great mercy and love with which He has loved us, and drawn us to Him? If we neglect to do this, and are not feeling full of joy and gratitude for all He has done, then we are off the line, and are not fit to receive that blessing and help which we should otherwise have been getting. It is never necessary or right to be weary or downhearted in Christian Science, and we certainly ought never to be sad.
God leads, and if we follow God, not halting to consider self, we must do well. Of this I am sure,—that I have a niche to fill that no one else can fill for me, and I am trying hard to fill it, not as I will, but as I feel directed by Wisdom.
In all history, sacred or secular, no story can be found so full of pathos,—touching the heights and depths of being,—as the story of a woman's gratitude which we find recorded by three of the Evangelists. (Matthew, 26:6-13; Mark, 14:3-9; John, 12:1-8.
The way in which agitation in legal circles, intended to secure decisions against Christian Scientists, is resulting in decisions in their favor, suggests an interesting retrospect. We find that the leaven of Christian Science has permeated the other modes of human consciousness, and we may wonder why the medical thought was first stirred, then the theological, and finally the legal.
A Lecture on the above subject was delivered on Monday, June 5, in Queen's Hall, Langham Place, London. The Earl of Dunmore, who presided, introduced the lecturer, who spoke as follows:— Since coming to your shores I have been the recipient of many kinds of welcome, for which I am grateful, because they serve to draw closer the loving bonds of kinship, and enable us to realize that neither time nor distance can interpose barriers between those of the same language and lineage, between those who, however separated, can join in claiming the heritage of the same great deeds and the priceless blessing of liberty.
On looking back over the twenty-five years during which I have been a member of the Congregational Church, I can see how I was being made ready to accept Christian Science when it should come to me. Hot-tempered and impulsive, timid and sensitive, yet earnest and conscientious, my whole life has been one of hard struggle with the seemingly warring elements within me.
The Patriarchal theory of Government as found in the Bible and the Patria Potestas of ancient Rome were in many respects identical in terms, and in particular they each emphasized the authority and control of the father or head of the family over the person and property of the "Son under the Power. " The earliest peoples were first found in isolated families, then, as the number of families increased and some were grown more powerful than others, the law of self-preservation brought about a combination of several families, forming a tribe.
One of the greatest joys that comes to us after we begin to understand Christian Science is the comforting assurance, the glorious certainty, that God is guiding His children of this age, as surely as he guided the children of Israel in their journey out from bondage into the promised land of liberty and plenty; and we learn that the advice given to them so long ago is equally practical and valuable to us to-day. His wise counsel was certainly intended for every age and clime, and after our eyes are opened by the study of our great text-book, Science and Health, we read the Bible with fresh interest, constantly finding pearls of wisdom and instruction, not for some future state of existence which seems too remote to interest us, but for here and now.
Men may reasonably inquire why it is that so many adverse criticisms from pulpit and press, of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," are being made, if it really is such a key and explains the principle and law of the spiritual healing taught and practised by Jesus in the first century, as claimed by Christian Scientists; and why is it that one class of honest readers pronounce it full of unreasonable and contradictory statements, while another class, equally honest and intelligent, claim to find its reasoning faultless, its statements invincible, and that it brings into such clear view the healing truth of the Scriptures, that every honest and patient student of the two books can demonstrate their verity and unity. It may also be as reasonably asked why so many scholars and thinkers of every civilized country on the globe, both now and in the past, have made the same criticisms against the Bible that are now being made against Science and Health.