Editorials

When Jesus sent forth the twelve disciples on their mission to mankind, bidding them preach the gospel and heal the sick wherever they should go, he concluded this part of his instructions with the significant statement: "Freely ye have received, freely give. " Theirs was indeed a blessed privilege.

IT is not possible for any one to overestimate the great change which comes over human consciousness when the spiritual sense of being replaces material belief about God and man. St.

AS another year rounds out and we enter the penumbra of the Christian world's greatest festal event, what a splendid and altogether fitting thing it would be if, in loving remembrance of their Master, all professed Christians were to put into practical effect that spirit of compassion and kindliness which he showed toward men,—if they were to quit criticizing and condemning their fellows, and leave them to the judgment of God. The poor woman who was taken in her sin had no word, of excuse, and silently conceded that there was nothing to be said in extenuation of her fault.

IT is not surprising that "the disciple whom Jesus loved," he who had perhaps been the Master's closest friend and confidant in the three years since, leaving all else behind, he had entered upon his vocation as a fisher of men, should have given us in his gospel and epistles something more of that infinite love and tenderness he had experienced and witnessed than it was possible for the other apostolic writers to transcribe. He who was privileged to lean on the Master's breast at that last supper, he who declared that "God is Love," he who knew how deep and wide was that all-embracing love wherewith the Master's followers had been blessed,—"as the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you,"—he it was who set down for our guidance that new commandment which was the Master's parting word to his followers ere he went forth to the supreme demonstration of his love: "As I have loved you, that ye also love one another;" and John was but following divine precedent when again and again in his epistles he bade the followers of him who loved us to the end, "Little children, love one another," as if this were the prime essential, the very foundation stone of obedience to the Master's commands.

The attitude of the caviling and the worldly-wise which some of the clergy have assumed toward Mrs. Eddy's contention that the truth of the Master's teaching is to rest upon scientific demonstration, and not upon theological dicta, would suggest that in their devotion to Christ Jesus' words they have quite forgotten his substantiating works.

A Good many Christian people are familiar with the statement that "man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever;" in other words, that this is the purpose for which man exists. In this connection Mrs.

Christian Scientists are frequently asked why, if they believe in the same God that other Christians do, and use the same Bible, they must needs have a separate and distinctive church; why they cannot retain their membership in the church in which they have been reared, even if they have decided to eschew the use of material remedies and dispense with medical attendance. The question would carry more weight were there only one church, but a large percentage of the membership of the Church of Christ, Scientist, has come from the multitude of churches whose varying creeds, based on this same Bible, have led them to separate themselves one from another and reared seemingly impassable walls between them.

THROUGHOUT Jesus' ministry, no less than at the present time, people asked what they should receive in return for the sacrifices they were supposed to make for Truth's sake. Here it may be said that a sense of sacrifice really is the measure of one's imperfection, and it was rebuked by one of the older prophets, who declared that "to obey is better than sacrifice.

IN the last verse of the ninth chapter of Luke's gospel there is a saying of the Master which has a lesson for his would-be followers today, even as it had for those to whom it was first spoken, namely, the necessity of steadfastness in seeking the kingdom of God. Impressed, doubtless, with the marvelous works of healing he had wrought in exemplification of the truths he sought to impress upon his hearers, there were many— perhaps those who had themselves experienced "the healing of the seamless dress"—who sought to ally themselves with the great Teacher; but when he bade them come, to leave all and follow him, few there were who could meet the test.

THOSE who believe in the reality of all that is witnessed to by material sense, and who also believe in God, are logically led to conclude that He is responsible for so-called natural law; and since this is indissolubly associated not only with many agreeable experiences, but with devastations and disease, is as manifest in decay as in growth, in death as in life, many are led to conclude that, however repellant the idea to their native instincts, it is probably true that the world as we find it is the best possible world in keeping with that larger divine purpose which as yet we cannot apprehend. The inevitable outcome of this line of thought is a more tolerant attitude toward evil as a whole and its incorporation in the world scheme, a disposition to think that everything has its place in the one worth-while undertaking, the making of a man.