Editorials

In a recent issue The Christian Work and Evangelist very pertinently asks, "Have we ever thought of what it means to be a Christian, fully to accept Jesus Christ, take him at his word, believe the New Testament?" This may seem to be a peculiar question to ask of Christian people, but the fact that it has been asked is at least indicative of a wellsettled doubt as to whether professing Christians of the present day are fully accepting Jesus Christ, are really taking him at his word, and entirely believing the New Testament. This in itself is a serious arraignment of the Christian churches, and it is one that merits and requires a serious and definite answer.

In no way, perhaps, has Christian Science more significantly contributed to the advance of Christian thought than in its institution of a higher apprehension of the meaning of law. With a very large number this word has awakened little more than a rather vague sense of an irresistible order of phenomena.

IN studying the Bible we find many interesting statements regarding the interpretation of life's lessons as wrought out by some of the noted characters of sacred history. In the case of Joseph, and of Daniel as well, their understanding of the Mind that governs the universe and man, enabled them to interpret the night dreams as well as the day dreams of their fellow beings in such a way as to lift thought above the sordid conditions of mortal experience and to bring to the perplexed, whether monarch or serf, a glimpse of man's divinely bestowed possibilities for good.

RECENTLY , both in pulpit and press, there has been considerable discussion of the actuality of both heaven and hell, and among other opinions expressed was one by a man of great prominence, from which we take the following excerpts: In the present day no educated person believes in a hell. This declaration will no doubt be publicly disapproved by some rather archaic ministers and also by some editors of religious papers.

WE may well rejoice in knowing that the Scriptures are being studied at this period as never before, and for the best of reasons, whether or not the result to the individual brings at once the fulness of blessing which it should. If it ever fails to do so, it can only be for the reason given by Christ Jesus, who said to some of his critics, "Ye search the Scriptures, because ye think that in them ye have eternal life; and these are they which bear witness of me; and ye will not come to me, that ye may have life" (Revised Version).

THE human problem has never been more strikingly stated than in the words, "Given self, to find God. " Nevertheless, for those who accept our Lord's teaching respecting the source of all being, the supreme requirement would be better phrased as, Given God, to interpret experience.

WITHIN the last year or two, a question affecting in a degree the moral and physical welfare of every child of school going age in the United States has been receiving much attention in the press and from the platform, and for a time it seemed that the good sense and the sense of propriety of many communities had been or would be overridden by the persistence with which those who advocated the compulsory teaching of so-called sex hygiene in the public schools urged their views upon educators and school committees. Fortunately the current which for a time seemed to be setting so strongly in favor of this precocious and pernicious education as to threaten a tidal wave of wrecked ideals, has at length taken a turn, and in some communities, Chicago for instance, the determination to force this subject upon the attention of boys and girls of tender years has been abandoned because of the protests of parents who have revolted in amazement and disgust from the ruthless, needless wound and shock to the sensibilities of the children who have been subjected to lectures on this subject.

PREACHING before a famous association of scientists, a distinguished English prelate has recently remarked upon the stupidity of "the suggestion that there must be a barrier between knowledge and belief"! The exclamation is ours, and we use it because of the significant intimation, involved in the word "barrier," that while knowledge and belief may and should amicably dwell together, they pertain to two separate and distinct departments of thought. In view of the long-time war of words waged between them,this thought of possible fraternity between science and religion may be classed as "advanced.

AS the years go by, and the Bible is studied more and more by Christian Scientists, a desire comes at times to grasp more fully the meaning of the passages which seem to be obscure, the difficulty in many cases being due to their Oriental setting. All who are familiar with the literature of Christian Science are aware that Mrs.

IN reading the new volume, "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany," in which is garnered up for us the ripened wisdom of our revered Leader's lifelong endeavor for the uplift of humanity, one cannot fail to be impressed, among other helpful features, with the dignity and forcefulness of its Foreword. The largeness of vision, the keen foresight of threatening dangers, the tender admonition, the conservative summing-up of what had been accomplished in the establishment of the cause of Christian Science,—all these bring clearly before us the immensity of our obligation as followers of so devoted a Leader, when weighed in the balances of service to mankind.