Putting on record insights into the practice of Christian Science.
Editorials
God's spiritual and indestructible creation has no need of redemption. But the human race requires to be lifted above the agelong superstition of life and intelligence in matter to the recognition of the one perfect and infinite Mind—that Mind "which was also in Christ Jesus"—that Mind through which he dealt a deathblow to tyrannical material beliefs.
Speaking in the name of God, the prophet Isaiah cried, "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters. " In a land where drinkable water was often difficult to obtain, this figurative invitation of the prophet must have meant much.
Christian Science is emphatic in its upholding of the First Commandment ( Exodus 20:3 ), "Thou shalt have no other gods before me. " There is one God, one creator, one great First Cause, known also in Christian Science as Mind, Spirit, Soul, Life, Truth, Love, Principle.
It is possible that when St. John recorded, with Oriental imagery, the series of visions which came to him on the Isle of Patmos, he believed that the second coming of Christ would occur in the immediate future.
The progressive Christian Scientist finds the study of everything pertaining to spiritual being absorbing and rewarding. He can say with Paul, "I have therefore whereof I may glory through Jesus Christ in those things which pertain to God.
We are apparently witnessing in the world today a mighty conflict between the forces which make for human enslavement and those which ensure the freedom of mankind. On the one hand, law is being set aside; on the other, law is being championed.
John the Baptist prophesied the coming of one "whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. " This vivid statement might seem alarming were it taken to refer to persons, but Christian Science interprets Scriptural metaphor scientifically.
In the tenth chapter of Revelation, St. John used the simile of an angel "clothed with a cloud" and a rainbow "upon his head," and "in his hand a little book open.
The temptation to believe in evil as real is common to all mankind. The Apostle Paul said, in his letter to the Romans (7:19, 21) , "For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do," and, "I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
One of the passages most frequently quoted by Christian Scientists from their textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures"by Mary Baker Eddy, is the definition of "Church," found on page 583 . The first paragraph of this definition reads as follows: "Church.