Editorials

IN the early experience of many Christian Scientists there comes a time when they feel impelled to talk about their new-found faith to all their friends and associates, "in season, out of season," with the greatest confidence that their hearers will be as glad to hear them upon this subject as they are to talk upon it. To all who are now going through this stage of their career in Christian Science, we venture a few words of caution which may be helpful.

ALL who have been born and nurtured in Christian homes, and who have been led to think of the church as a sacred institution which sustains a vital relation to the world's redemption, can but be pained as they note the harsh and ofttimes irreverent criticism to which its teaching is being subjected at the hands of scholarly men today. Both religious and philosophical publications, as well as secular periodicals, teem with articles in which Christian views which have been accepted unquestioningly for centuries are dissected and discarded in a way that must seem shocking and cruel to those who venerate the belief of their fathers.

New York, N. Y.

Professor Griggs has said that the hunger for unity and for eternity are the two deepest longings of the human soul. Me might fittingly have added that it is quite impossible for us to think of the kingdom of God, a kingdom in which love is the all-governing law, without recognizing the inherent unity of the subjects of this kingdom together with the naturalness of those prophecies of Christ's universal reign which give assurance of the oneness of his followers, a oneness the nature and completeness of which was defined by our Lord when he said, "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us.

In every age civilized men have sought evidence of a life above and beyond mortality; indeed this demand, this ceaseless longing which would not down, has been regarded as sure proof of man's immortality. Much surprise has been expressed by thoughtful students of the Bible that so little which is definite should have been said by the Old Testament writers, or even by Christ Jesus and his immediate followers, respecting what is called "the future life.

It is sometimes said by those who are critical of Christian Science, that its adherents are narrow, that they are persons of one idea, even bigoted in their insistence upon one way and only one way of expressing themselves in matters pertaining to their understanding of God, man, and the universe. yet these same critics are not offended by the exactness and "bigotry" displayed by the mathematician, who is equally exact and equally insistent upon the manner in which a problem in mathematics shall be stated and worked out.

[The following letters are self-explanatory, and tell the story of our Leader's generous gift for the further enlargement of the publishing house, and also of the gift from the church at San Jose for the same purpose. The Directors of The Mother Church, as well as the trustees of the Publishing Society and all others interested, are most grateful for these gifts, which will do so much toward extending the efficiency and scope of our publications, and particularly of the Monitor.

THE year 1910 opens with the brightest prospect for human progress ever offered in the world's history. The moral tone is steadily advancing, and with it we have a hitherto unknown increase in longevity.

STANDING at the entry-way of the new year, the meditatively-minded are naturally impelled to survey the past and scan the future, and this exercise is likely to prove especially interesting to those who are noting the state and trend of religious belief. Jesus' inquiring appeal, just before the close of his earthly ministry, "When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?" has provoked a great deal of wonderment respecting the occasion and significance of his thought, and attempted explanations have generally been far from satisfactory.

THERE is one branch of professional etiquette, namely, the inviolability of the intimate and confidential relations which exist between lawyer and client, physician and patient, clergyman and parishioner, which is so well understood, and in fact is so safeguarded by the law, that it is rarely infringed, and inasmuch as the Christian Science practitioner stands in the same confidential relation to his patient as do the lawyer, the doctor, and the minister to their clients, there should he no failure on the part of the practitioner to respect the confidence of his patient to just the same extent as do these professional men. In the relationship of patient and practitioner, the patient feels that he is in need of help because of conditions in his life or in the lives of those of his immediate environment, which have brought sickness, sorrow, or discord into his experience, and he has the right to expect that whatever he says to the practitioner will be regarded as being just as inviolably confidential as anything lie might say to his lawyer or his spiritual adviser.