Articles

In one of our New England towns there lived a little girl whom we will call Minnie. She was left an orphan in earliest infancy.

Well does the writer remember when he first heard this phrase. An old teacher said: "I see, in talking with your children, that you have taught them to read pictures!" In a recent number of The Ohio Educational Monthly and National Teacher is an essay on this subject, worth reading.

Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery; but I say unto you, that whosoever looketh on a woman, to lust after her, hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. And if thy right eye offend 'thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee; for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into Hell.

Strive to enter in at the strait gate, LUKE xiii. 24.

Will wonders never cease? One man, whom the writer has met, made the astounding discovery, that the term Christian Science is not to be found in the Bible; and with this overwhelming argument he hoped to silence the guns of Truth. We fail to find the terms Methodist, Presbyterian, Trinity, God-man, Character, and hundreds of others in the Bible; yet we do not question the use of them.

It is a fact that a majority of the human family are striving to better their circumstances or condition in life, believing that in so doing they will become happier. What will man not do in search of gain? He explores the depths of earth and sea for their hidden treasures.

The best sermon ever preached is Truth demonstrated. Jesus said, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life;" and he proved it by his demonstrations.

Much is said of God's judgments on man, and that everlasting punishment alone will satisfy divine justice. Limited mortal thought can not measure the quantity or quality of infinite and eternal Good.

On what? Toward what? Is our attitude of mind like the forest tree, which leans for support on its more robust neighbor? Do we aspire toward Spirit, and inspire enough of it to offset our rootedness in the material beliefs by which we are surrounded, that we may not compare unfavorably with a more aspiring and inspiring neighbor? Do our aspirations and inspirations yield to the belief in attraction, which is the result of an aspiration toward and inspiration of Spirit alone, which has developed itself in the grandest proportions, the sublimest comprehensible sense? Has comparison still the power to make us feel our littleness in contrast with our neighbor, who has better appreciated and utilized the very resources which we have at hand? Has envy still the despotic control of our belief? Does the leaning thought find the attraction toward which it leans conducive to beauty, sublimity, or longevity? Can the leaning thought inspire more of Spirit, until it aspires toward it? Can we, any more than a tree, inspire the Spirit, by which our rootedness in fact is supported, unless we, like the grand, beautiful, and majestic tree, raise aloft the drooping, envious, revengeful branches of the thought we hold, while comparing our littleness with the seemingly greater proportions of our neighbor? Do we appreciate the fact that grandeur, sublimity, and majesty of character are developed by aspiration, and that aspiration directs us toward the Truth, the Light, the Life, encouraging us to throw out branches of thought upon every side, so that our resources of inspiration are increased, and our spirituality advanced. Do we, like the tree, imbibe from circumference the essence of spiritual existence; or do we turn inward, and consume the pith, the marrow, the core, which must be consumed before the evidence of vitality in belief of matter becomes less evident? God, or Life, Truth, Love, is circumference and not centre.

In the Gospels we read, in connection with the first Christmas, of the Star which guided the Wisemen, or Magians, to the manger where lay the newborn Jesus, in Mary's arms. God speaks to us today, as he did to Jacob and Joseph of old, "in the visions of the night.