Articles

The common notion that brain is Mind,—and that the farther we get back into the depths of pre-historic times the smaller the brain-mind of men must be,— finds a stumbling-block in something written by the Duke of Argyll, about an old skull:— This most ancient of all known human skulls is so ample in its dimensions, that it might have contained the brains of a philosopher.

The last edition of Science and Health often uses the term Jesus the Christ, instead of the customary term, Jesus Christ, which we find in the New Testament. The reason for this may be found partly stated on pages 45, 46, 261, 262, of Science and Health; but some further explanation is in order.

How does Ritschl regard Christ? He considers him as one with God. But this oneness is not a oneness of consubstantiality of nature, but of Spirit and will, the correlation of his obedience with the Divine Love and Purpose.

Christian Science is doing more for humanity than any other reform, doctrine, or philosophy has yet done. Its glorious light, like the Star of Bethlehem, is leading the Wise Men to Truth.

Christian Science aims at perfection, as universal harmony. Perfection is harmony, and harmony is perfection.

In a recent letter the question was raised, in what sense God is declared, in Science and Health, to be a Principle. The dictionaries give several definitions, among them these: a rule of action, a general truth.

Were a woman to visit a foreign country, whose people not only spoke a language, but had habits of thought and ways of living dissimilar in every respect to her own, and she had in her possession, and desired to bring to the consideration of that nation, a great gift, of whose value, and their own need of it, they were entirely unconscious, how, indeed, could she explain it to them, or bestow it upon them, if, while she spoke, they understood no word of her language, and failed to comprehend her expressions? She must perforce employ an interpreter, and there must be a translation from one language into another. In this position, of a voyager into a far country, was the discoverer of Christian Science in the nineteenth century—possessing a rare and most precious gift, longing to confer it upon the weary inhabitants of that dreamland whose language and beliefs are material, while her country and ideas are spiritual,—and forced to wait until the interpretation was accomplished, while she herself became the interpreter, as well as discoverer and donor.

It often requires time to overcome a patient's faith in drastics and plasters; but once convinced of their uselessness, the conviction is for all time. It is a noticeable fact that in families where laws of health are strictly enforced, and great caution is observed in regard to the diet, and the conversation largely devoted to bodily ailments, there is the most sickness.

It is related of Justin Martyr that, hearing of a Pythagorean Professor of Ethics, he expressed the wish to become one of his disciples. "Very well," the Teacher replied; "but have you studied music, astronomy, and geometry, and do you think it possible for you to understand aught of that which leads to bliss, without having mastered the sciences that disengage the Soul from objects of sense, so rendering it a fit habitation for the intelligences?" On Justin's confessing that he had not studied those branches, he was dismissed by the Professor.

The advocates of novel opinions will always be met with more or less slander, but that is of little moment. What is gained by losing self-respect? What is lost by losing the homage of fools, or the praise of hypocrites, false to themselves as to others? Shakespeare is right:— This above all, to thine own self be true; And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.