Editorials

THE two most prominent presentations upon the stage of human experience are those of life and death, which, while thought of as forever at war and in a sense mutually exclusive, have nevertheless been classed together, even in Christian faiths, as having equally legitimate parts in the divinely ordered human program. Christian Science teaches that the one infinite Life in its omnipresent and ceaseless continuity leaves no place whatever for death, which is therefore neither to be consented to nor feared.

AS the result of many years' experience, Mrs. Eddy tells us that "the literal rendering of the Scriptures makes them nothing valuable, but often is the foundation of unbelief and hopelessness" (Miscellaneous Writings, p.

IF proof were wanting of the unreality of evil, the fallaciousness of its asserted claims to place and power, we need but recall that from the beginning it has promised that which it could not fulfil, has tried to delude even itself with the belief that it could in some way circumvent omnipotence. But from the time it beguiled the dwellers in the garden of Eden with that seductive phrase, "Ye shall be as gods;" when it promised Jesus the pomp and glory of the kingdoms of this world if he would but fall down and worship it; until today, when it would persuade mortals that the lusts of the flesh, the pride of place and power, are more to be desired than the love of God,—in each and every instance evil has contracted for what it could not deliver, because evil, or the devil, as Jesus declared, "is a liar, and the father of it;" "and abode not in the truth.

At the close of Paul's first epistle to Timothy we find this solemn warning to his young student: "O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called. " The master Christian himself had made it clear that the right kind of knowledge (which is always science) is indispensable to human progress; that the knowing of the truth makes free from evil of every sort, as he proved by his healing ministry for mankind, and to lose sight of the Science of being would mean the greatest misfortune which could befall the race.

Every thoughtful student of Christian Science must have been impressed by the emphasis it lays upon the attainment of a concept of God which brings Him into redemptive relation with all our determinations and doings. He sees that to begin to be a Christian Scientist is to begin to think of God all the while; it is to shape our course and conduct, every hour and moment, by remembrance of Him.

There is, perhaps, no surer way of discovering one's true status as a Christian Scientist than through the process of separation, putting ourselves on one side or the other of the line of demarcation between giving and receiving. Why are we Christian Scientists? For what we can give, or for what we can receive? Are we blessing as we have been blessed, giving our presence, our prayers, our support, to the varied activities of The Church of Christ, Scientist, as instituted by Mrs.

The new year precipitates for most people not a little thought of the passage of time, of that mighty tide which seems to lave all shores and silently to gather up all creatures and events and bear them swiftly on and away into the unfathomable deep of the past. And yet, emblazoned upon the unfading blue of heaven, men of spiritual vision have seen these golden words, "Behold, I make all things new,"—words that tell of the activity of that Life which knows neither age nor disintegration, and which preserves all reality in the freshness of an immortal youth.

At the beginning of each year thoughtful people instinctively review the experiences of the one just closed, and make a mental estimate of their gains and losses. From the Christian Science view-point both of these are important, and our revered Leader makes this clear when she speaks of the "loss of the pleasures and pains and pride of life: gain of its sweet concord, the courage of honest convictions, and final obedience to spiritual law" (Miscellaneous Writings, p.

It was the wise man who summed up "the whole duty of man" in that terse phrase, "Fear God, and keep his commandments;" and it was perhaps out of his own experience with the fleeting nature of all temporal vanities, that he laid down as a fundamental premise to this conclusion his oft-quoted admonition, "Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them. " Again, in his admonition to "train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old, he will not depart from it," King Solomon laid stress upon the early inculcation of divine precepts, that the years of mature manhood and womanhood might be crowned with the blessings attendant on those who love God's law, and loving, obey its behests.

AT this season of the year the name of Jesus of Nazareth is often upon the lips of those who seek to honor his memory by celebrating his natal day, and whatever be the differences of opinion respecting him, there are none who would deny that he deserves the love and gratitude of all men for what he taught, what he did, and what he was. A well-know writer says that "any belief in him—the smallest—is better than any belief about him," and this was a test of discipleship which he himself gave, when he said to Martha: "Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.