Editorials

"My recent reply to the reprint of a scandal in the Literary Digest was not a question of 'Who shall be greatest?' but 'Who shall be just?' Who is or is not the founder of Christian Science was not the trend of thought, but to lift the curtain on wrong, on falsehood persistently misrepresenting my character, education, and authorship, and attempting to narrow my life into a conflict for fame. "Far be it from me to tread on the ashes of the dead, or to dissever any unity that may exist between Christian Science and the philosophy of a great and good man, for such was Ralph Waldo Emerson, and I deem it unwise to enter into a newspaper controversy over a question that is no longer a question.

The publication in The Literary Digest of May 30 of an article attributing the origin of Christian Science to Ralph Waldo Emerson, has led Mrs. Eddy to make the following statement, which appeared in The Boston Journal of June 8.

The paradox seems to have been a favorite form of expression with St. Paul, and nowhere does he use it more effectively than in his references to death.

The following paragraphs are taken from the newspaper reports of a most excellent sermon preached by Rev. Henry Van Dyke at the recent meeting of the Presbyterian General Assembly at Los Angeles:— "I want to speak to you to-day about the religion of Christ in its relation to happiness.

" The atheism of anxiety!" How a phrase like this fastens itself upon the memory, and despite all new and absorbing topics holds its own until we listen to its reiterant suggestion and accept its insistent message. We have always been aware, in some degree, of the tyranny of anxiety.

We own Thy sway, we hear Thy call. We test our lives by Thine.

THE dominant tendency of tired humanity is to relaxation. It is a most comforting thing, to lie down, when under a sense of discouragement and weariness, and they are not all lazy who yield to this seduction.

THE readers of the Journal have shown such unvarying kindness and appreciation that we feel sure they will pardon our use of part of the editorial space of this number for the purpose of making a suggestion necessary for the convenience of both reader and publisher. The suggestion we venture to make is that those who are in the habit of purchasing single copies of the Journal will subscribe by the year for all the copies they may need.

THE critics of Christian Science have not infrequently spoken of its representatives as assuming, both in their statement and bearing, that it is a privilege and a duty not only to be happy but to be free; as both maintaining for themselves and claiming for all others who are governed by Truth, the inheritance of all good, and the legitimate exemption from those so-called human conditions which stand for limitation and discomfort, including that enforced submersion in the struggle for the supply of temporal wants, which is the lot of the worthy poor. The unique grounds of this indictment, which Christian Scientists neither attempt to palliate nor deny, may well be considered.

Nor knowest thou what argument Thy life to thy neighbor's creed hath lent. Emerson.