Editorials

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE has accomplished a great work in compelling people who are affiliated with some one or other of the many Christian denominations to "search the Scriptures" as they had never done before in order to defend the doctrines which they had either accepted or inherited. In many instances this search is undertaken for the purpose of showing some Christian Scientist that his views are unscriptural, an attempt which can never result in aught but the illumination of the inquirer if he is honest and reasonable and if he sincerely desires to get at the truth.

IN "Miscellaneous Writings" ( p. 232 ) Mrs.

The devotees of a long-established religious order are always troubled by any show of change. They are not only subject to the dominion of a habit of thought, but never having learned to demonstrate the verity of their religious convictions, discrimination between divine truth and human opinions has been neglected until the beliefs of their fathers have come to wield a controlling influence which rightly belongs to demonstrable truth alone.

As the character of Christ Jesus is studied in the light of Christian Science, we are impressed by the fact that his spotless purity offers the best explanation of his mighty works. This being admitted, we may well ponder deeply his fearless declaration, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

The excuse sometimes proffered for human weaknesses and peccadillos is, "Oh, it doesn't amount to anything. If I never do anything worse than that, I shall be all right.

AT this period, the question of the Philippian jailer, "What must I do to be saved?" takes on a new significance to the average mortal, who is not so much concerned about salvation which is supposed to deal largely with a future life as with the pressing demands of the present hour. He asks what he shall do to be saved from limitation, lack, and possible failure, and this opens up the subject of vocation and leads him to inquire what he is best fitted to do.

MUCH of the objection to the teaching of Christian Science respecting the unreality of evil is on the ground that evil supplies an essential condition to the perfectibility of man, God's image and likeness! It is averred that moral character is dependent upon the making of choice between right and wrong, and that if there were not a real evil as well as a real good, such choice or determination would be impossible, and man's so-called freedom become a farce. It is argued that if man were not free to choose the wrong, he would be a mere automaton, without merit for his right doing, and wholly lacking in that virtue which is the fruitage of loyalty to good despite the seductions of evil.

AN argument often urged by non-believers in Christian Science runs thus: If Christian Science is founded on the Bible, why separate yourselves from other Christian denominations? One might ask in return, Why so many Christian denominations? If all believe in the Bible, why not unite and in one great body conquer the world for Christ? Mrs. Eddy answers the first of the above questions simply and clearly when she says: "The theology of Christian Science' includes healing the sick.

EDUCATED bias constitutes a serious disability to the understanding of Christian Science, and it has been peculiarly manifest in Christian believers, especially theologians. A great and eventful change is, however, taking place.

No careful student of Christian Science would deny that its chief offense to the average thinker is its insistent denial of matter and material law, but just here it should be remembered that Truth's idea, from its very nature, cannot adapt itself to human opinion, but must of necessity lift thought from the material to the spiritual. This was certainly the case at the beginning of the Christian era, and St.