Editorials

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.

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

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.

" FOR as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead. Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them.

The greatest word in the English language, is not English in its origin, but Hebrew, while its content knows no limitation of language or nationality. From the thundering peaks of Horeb, and the illumined heights of Hermon, Immanuel, God with us, has been spoken to the world, and its meaning for men gathers up the purpose and end of all the exalted incidents and experiences of their history; all its revelation, its struggle for the right, its sacrifice, its overcoming, and its joy.

Those friends, thou hast, and their adoption tried, Grapple them to thy soul with hooks of steel. This master touch of the great bard of human nature will never cease to wake an echo of sympathy in the heart of man.

A Remarkable feature of the progress of the Christian Science denomination is that very few of its members have accepted the distinctive teachings of Christian Science for no better reason than that some relative or friend is a member of the denomination. Comparatively few have called themselves Christian Scientists without having had to overcome a sense of opposition and prejudice that rendered them well-nigh incapable of passing sane judgment upon the facts coming their attention.

The test to which every new idea is subjected by business men as well as by physical scientists, is this,— How does it work? and the answer given is determinative, for this is the final court of appeal. The suggestion, however, that religious theories are amenable to the same practical test, has not been received without protest, and it is only in recent years that the pursuit of a scientific method in the study of the Bible and of religious phenomena has been acceptable to any considerable proportion of Christian believers.