Editorials

Pleasant View, Concord, N. H.

[ The interview granted by Mrs. Eddy to Arthur Brisbane, representing the Cosmopolitan , has called forth much favorable comment, and we quote from The Boston American the following editorial, which appeared under the title, "Mrs.

In an age when the achievements of philosophical investigation and inventive genius are so wondrous, when the triumph of Mind over matter is witnessed to in so many ways, and the so-called civilization of the more advanced nations is rapidly supplanting the untutored life of the indigenous races, it is not surprising that human reason should come to be regarded by many as "the key to the kingdom,"—the means by which all problems are to be solved, all difficulties overcome, all ills relieved, so that the race may find itself and come into the fulness of its own. The repose of this confidence can but be disturbed, however, by the fact that intellectuality is not found to have any necessary affiliation with virtue, that gain in so-called rationality and in the control of material conditions is not infrequently attended by an increased indulgence of those appetites and impulses which indicate moral weakness and degeneracy, so that it becomes a serious question whether after all the asserted advance of civilization has been genuine or merely a seeming.

A Number of years ago Mrs. Eddy, as Leader of the Christian Science movement, inaugurated the present order of service in all churches of the denomination, and since that time the old-fashioned sermon has been a thing of the past in the Christian Science churches.

Prominent among the questions which to-day challenge the attention of thinking people is the demand for civic righteousness, with all it implies. So much of un-righteousness has been uncovered of late years that its long concealed hideousness has brought the needed recoil, now that men are face to face with it, and pulpit and press unite in condemning dishonesty and corruption in high places.

Article XXXIII Meetings. —Sect.

In the turmoil and "hastening change" of twentieth-century religious convictions one meets with some facts which give great promise for the future, and prominent among these is the willingness with which those who represent the most conflicting opinions "exalt together" the character and works of Christ Jesus. The whole Christian world is practically at one in accepting the ideality of his life and teaching, and in believing that men may find the essential faith and overcoming in an honest endeavor to follow his footsteps.

In the sublime poetry of Isaiah we find nothing grander than his description of the world when the kingdom of God shall be universally recognized, — all living creatures dwelling together in concord; the child playing "on the hole of the asp;" when nothing shall "hurt nor destroy, .

THE observant reader of current religious literature can but note the amount of attention which is being given these days to the consideration of the asserted place and purpose of disease and death in the divine plan for the education of humanity. In an article which appeared recently, headed "Not Enemies but Friends," suggestive reference was made to the "pathetic fallacy" underlying "some modern movements," that pain and sorrow and death are intruders, — "Uninvited guests who enter to blight the joy and overshadow the festivity," when, as the writer declares, pain should be thought of as a great and wise instructor, a true friend to all! He says, — Pain is incidental to all birth and to every stage of growth.

As there has been more or less misinformation extant as to Mrs. Eddy's relation to the international peace movement, it may be well to state the facts in a few words, so that there need be no further misunderstanding.