Editorials

IN the book of Acts we find that when Peter and John were brought before the rulers, charged with the offense of having healed a man lame from the time of his birth, they were asked, as a preliminary to their judicial examination, "by what power, or by what name" they had wrought this miracle. They answered that it was through the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth that this man had been healed, and they declared that the healing truth thus exemplified was the truth referred to by the psalmist as "the stone which the builders refused," but which "is become the head stone of the corner.

IN no respect are thoughtful Christian Scientists more entirely at one than in witnessing that their outlook upon life and its problems has been cleared; that they are no longer burdened with doubt and confusion, as they once were and as are the many today respecting vital spiritual truths; in a word, that their understanding of God and His righteous government has been wondrously enlightened. And yet, all those acquainted with the comments of the uninformed respecting Christian Science, have noted how frequently the intimation is conveyed that it makes unusual demands upon human credulity.

THAT the gospel Jesus taught and demonstrated was one of works as well as words, is the only reasonable conclusion to be deduced from the record of his public ministry as set down by the four evangelists. It is true that he preached the gospel of the kingdom wherever he went after he had gathered about him those whom he had chosen to be "fishers of men," for as he told the people he had not come to destroy the law promulgated from Sinai and handed down through many generations by the prophets invested by the supreme Lawgiver with power to declare His word, but he had come to exemplify in himself its glorious fulfilment.

There are a great many well-minded people who entertain the opinion that the metaphysical is the unintelligible; that it is an intangible, up-in-the-air kind of thinking about things, of which some normal and many abnormal people are greatly enamored, and that it has very little to do with practical affairs. Not infrequently one meets with those who explain their lack of interest in Christian Science by the statement that it is altogether too metaphysical for matter-of-fact, unlettered folk, and that they are compelled to content themselves with something they can more readily understand.

At the dawn of another year we are reminded of Mrs. Eddy's words, "Time is a mortal thought, the divisor of which is the solar year.

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.