Editorials

IN an address to the alumni of the Massachusetts Metaphysical College, twenty years ago, Mrs. Eddy said: "Christian Scientists cannot watch too sedulously, or bar their doors too closely, or pray to God too fervently, for deliverance from the claims of evil.

STUDENTS of Christian Science are often asked to explain the difference between its teachings and those of other churches. It is of course assumed that there is a vital difference, for otherwise those who have accepted Christian Science would remain in their former denominations.

WHEN the advertising association of a large city was asked by a body of representative ministers recently, to explain the small attendance at their churches, these business men informed themselves of the facts in their own businesslike way, and expressed their resultant convictions in terms which merit careful attention. While much of their criticism can but bring pain and humiliation, it is expressed in that kindly way which marks the rebuke of a friend.

" WISDOM is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding. " Such was the counsel of David to his successor on the throne of Israel, and it is counsel by which all may well profit today.

There is no Christian belief which is more universally  entertained than that in the divine illumination and impulsion of the Scripture writers, and this belief has begotten a prevailing mental attitude of reverence toward the Bible, a sense of its uniqueness, its value, and its authority. Nevertheless, inquiry as to just what is meant by the declaration that the Bible is an inspired book would disclose much indefiniteness if not contradiction in the views held, and some of these involve such vital issues as render the subject worthy of a consideration it has never received at the hands of the great body of Christian people.

A new year has come, and we find ourselves wondering what it will bring to the world and to ourselves as individuals. With respect to the latter, we may well ask what lessons the departed year has brought us.

In a recent issue of the New York Sun was quoted a letter from a man distinguished in literature, addressed to the young soldiers fighting in the trenches who had no father, mother, or friend to send them a word of cheer. Extracts from the many letters received by one who having no son of his own sent an embrace to those who had no father, are pathetic in their revelation of the craving of the human heart for affection.

One of the most dramatic moments in the life of the Master was that in which, having entered the synagogue of his home village, he opened the book of the prophet Isaiah and read those wonderful words of Messianic forecast: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. " It was the moment of his first public self-recognition, when he daringly yet calmly declared that he who was known to them all as a humble carpenter's son, was indeed the hope of Israel, their Saviour.

Each year, as November draws to a close, the citizens of the United States recall anew the many reasons they have for thankfulness, and chief among these is their existence as a nation standing for the loftiest ideals of government known to any people. Vast and splendid as is their territory, stretching from the arctic circle to the tropics, and rich in all that makes for material wealth, yet this counts for nothing when compared with what the nation has stood for in its recognition of the rights and responsibilities of manhood.

Whatever may be claimed to the contrary, it can be safely said that Christian Scientists are daily doing their part in lifting the burden from sorrowful humanity. Mrs.