Editorials

Has not the thought of mountains ever been attractive to humankind? Hardy climbers, fired with the urge of adventure, view a rugged peak as a challenge to their bodily and mental vigor. Poet and psalmist sing of lifting one's eyes to the hills, and Israel's prophets, throughout the Old Testament, frequently use the figure of mountains in their exhortations to mortals to leave the plains and valleys of materialism for the higher altitudes of spiritual sense.

An inquirer, impressed by the teaching of Christian Science that in reality there is no material sensation, once posed the question: "How does Mrs. Eddy know that she has read and studied correctly, if one must deny the evidences of the senses? She had to use her eyes to read.

To those uninstructed in Christian Science the great truth that God does not and cannot know evil is a part of what St. Paul calls "the mystery of godliness.

It is indeed fitting that Christian Scientists through the pages of the Journal should record their deep appreciation of and gratitude for the signal service rendered by the thousands of young students of Christian Science, men and women, who are now putting aside their uniforms and re-entering civilian life. The experiences of these young people who answered the call of their country, and who carried into camp and scenes of conflict the light of the healing Christ, Truth, make indeed thrilling reading.

THERE is one creator and one creation. Christian Science is founded on this scientific fact.

THE words "sense," "senses," and "sensation" are used so often by Mary Baker Eddy in explaining the teachings of Christian Science that it behooves every student of this Science to ponder well their thought value, and to utilize them correctly. The word "sense," used by this author only as a noun, is defined in the Oxford Dictionary as "any of the special bodily faculties by which sensation is roused ( the five senses , sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch.

ONWARD , Christian soldiers"—when this stirring hymn is sung, what heart does not respond to the call to go forward, ever forward, in the Christian's warfare? Is not the thought of retrogression repugnant to a progressive thinker? Who enjoys taking a retrograde step? To retrogress or retrograde means simply to step backward. To a Christian Scientist, whose watchword is progress, the suggestion of possible retrogression is unthinkable.

An unselfish desire to do good and an unselfed love for God and man are the motives essential to the successful treatment of sin or disease through Christian Science. A restrictive, selfish desire, or a willful purpose in the thought of one attempting to practice this Science ensures defeat.

" Praise ye the Lord: for it is good to sing praises unto our God; for it is pleasant; and praise is comely. " How pleasant and comely are our lives being made with praise? Praise of good is like sunshine.

In this issue of the Journal will be found reports covering most of the proceedings of the Annual Meeting of The Mother Church on June 3 of this year. This occasion, as in the past, proved to be a joyous one, for it afforded opportunity to set on record the progress of our redemptive movement in the year just ended.