Editorials

As Christmas time draws near, the cherished impulses of every Christian heart lead thought away to Bethlehem of Judæa, and we rehearse again, with an ever new delight, the incidents of the world's sweetest story. It is well if our pilgrimage must needs be one in thought only, for a personal visit to the hallowed place brings keen disappointment as well as great satisfaction, and quite as much of pain perchance, as of pleasure.

He is a freeman, whom the Truth makes free, And all are slaves besides. As we grow in the understanding of Christian Science, the consciousness of possible dominion through Spirit impels us upward, out of the mists of sense into higher altitudes.

No record has been kept of the preventive aspect of Jesus' ministry, and, in the very nature of things, such a record is impossible; but we can readily perceive that the divine understanding which healed all manner of disease was no less potent for its prevention. In healing sickness and sin, the Master in no wise acted in opposition to God's law; but, on the contrary, he healed in obedience to it.

OUR faithful laborers in the field of Science have been told, through the alert editor-in-chief of the Christian Science Sentinel and Journal, that "Mrs. Eddy advises, until the public thought becomes better acquainted with Christian Science, that Christian Scientists decline to doctor infectious or contagious diseases.

He must be reckoned a daring man who denies the reality of matter and yet asserts the reality of evil, for the logic of the situation leads to the inevitable inclusion of evil in the divine consciousness, and thus involves some startling contradictions. For example, if the one infinite Mind embraces evil it must embrace all that evil entails including death.

What the world means by spirituality and its idea of ordinary morality are widely different; and yet they are very closely related and apparently inter-dependent. Therefore let us not flatter ourselves that we are growing spiritually' while our lives in any respect fall short of the human standard of morality.

As morning dawns, long before the great sun in fullorbed splendor proclaims the day, the mountain peaks catch the beams of light and reflect them to the valleys below still resting in the deep, dark shadows. Prophetic rays they are, touching only the highest altitudes, harbingers, moreover, of the splendors in store for all the world.

Being enriched in everything to all bountifulness. which causeth through us thanksgiving to God.

As we ascend, new obstacles ever present themselves to be overcome, new tests of our sincerity and earnestness appear. These should bring to us no sense of discouragement, but rather assurance that greater victories are possible to us.

History is replete with illustrations of the dangers resulting from what may have been an altogether necessary reaction. The tension attending a long-delayed relief from trying conditions, often leads to an excess of revolt which may prove to be equally far removed from the normal and healthful plane of thought or life.