Editorials

ANOTHER year is fast drawing to its close, and not without some brave records of good achieved for the race, achievements which open wider and wider the gates of human thought for further victories on the side of right, and prepare the way for the triumph of good over every phase of belief in evil. As each Christmas time draws near, we hear anew the angelic message, "On earth peace, good will toward men;" while high hopes spring up to assure us that all the message implies—for men and nations—is an eternal fact which but awaits our recognition of its import and a quickened desire to bring the hope to its fulfilment.

THE days have come again when the thoughts of the Christian pilgrims of every land are Hocking toward Judea. Like homing pigeons they are finding their long way back to the hillside village where "appeared a great light," and out of the midst of it were heard angel voices, singing that sweet song which has echoed through the centuries.

Christian Scientists everywhere will be gratified to know, as announced by Mrs. Eddy's publisher, Allison V.

WE congratulate the editor of The Ladies' Home Journal upon the stand he has taken in an announcement which appeared on the editorial page of the November issue of this widely read magazine, and we feel sure that his millions of readers will gradually if not at once appreciate the wisdom and good judgment which have dictated this reform. The announcement reads as follows: Can we not get away from the universal use of the words "dead" and "death," and even the harsher-sounding words "die," "dying," and "died"? Aside from the harshness of the words themselves, and they are harsh and cruel in their sound, the words no longer express our belief: we are all fast reaching the belief that we do not die: we are not dead.

THE thought is not infrequently ventured that we are living in an age of marked intellectual freedom, and by way of contrast reference is often made by Christian writers to the times of Bruno and of Columbus, when the great body even of so-called educated people were in such abject subserviency to ecclesiastical traditions as to be ready to subject to the auto da fé all those who dared to maintain a conflicting opinion. This freedom from the domination of old ideas, simply because they are old, is generally regarded as most pronounced in the United States, and especially in "the Athens of America," and it is the more surprising, therefore, to find a Boston religious publication, of late date, discoursing upon "The Privilege of Pain" in a way that reminds one of a poet's saying, in praise of sadness, "Who suffers conquers.

THE question of healing the sick by prayer, which came up for consideration and. discussion in the convention of the Protestant Episcopal church recently held at Cincinnati, aroused great interest, and The Cincinnati Enquirer sums up the action of the convention at the session wherein this question was argued, as follows:— The question of healing by prayer was put directly lie fore the Episcopal convention at yesterday morning's session of the House of Deputies.

THE last month has witnessed a stirring fulfillment of Ezekiel's prophecy: "I will overturn, overturn, overturn, it: and it shall be no more, until he come whose right it is. " The eternal law of perfection, of absolute right, of unswerving justice, makes unceasing demand upon men and nations, and none can stay its operation until judgment is everywhere laid to the line and righteousness to the plummet.

ONE of the most remarkable statements to be found in any of St. Paul's epistles is that in which he says to the Corinthians, "For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.

WHATEVER their station or circumstance, mortals are ever seeking a larger freedom, and practically all the efforts and activities of the human race are in the line of endeavor to find escape from some sense of limitation or incapacity. This innate and universal longing for liberty upon the part of all noble souls, argues for its legitimacy.

THROUGHOUT the Scriptures,—from the days when Abram entreated Lot, "Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, .