Editorials

As Christian Scientists we need a clear, practical appreciation of what our corrective mission is, what it requires of us, and how it is basic to each activity of our movement. We need to see it as our corrective mission, our movement's corrective mission.

Few thoughtful people would seriously question the usefulness of human organization. A tremendous amount of good has been accomplished by the work people have done in concert.

For so long, people searched the face of the sky, gazed across the surface of the sea, and yet often misinterpreted what was seen. The sun seemed to move around the earth, the earth seemed flat.

They had not succeeded. A father had brought his young son to them, and they had not healed him.

If we hold a basically material concept of church government—while trying to demonstrate spiritual unity at the surface level of specific decision-making—we are apt to reap the fruits of our inconsistency. The need is to see the government of our church, from start to finish, in the light of the spiritual facts that heal.

My friend is a thoughtful metaphysician. Our conversation touched on the problem of being; who man is; the nature of reality.

Human suffering has long perplexed mankind. Why do individuals suffer? For what purpose? Can suffering be overcome? The theology of Christian Science challenges traditional religious and philosophical concepts of suffering.

A new year offers a wonderful opportunity to start living the millennium, or at least to take this concept of the earth under Christ's rule out of a framework of time, confusion, and fear producing superstition. The Second Epistle of Peter did more than assuage the disappointment of those early Christians who had thought none of them would die before Jesus personally returned.

Is Christmas simply the celebration of an event that happened two thousand years ago, which, though far-reaching in influence, may be no longer relevant? Or does it mark an epoch in fulfillment of salvation prophecy that John's Gospel describes as a consequent of God's love for the world? Christ Jesus, himself the central figure of the celebration, promised, ".

Outsiders sometimes misunderstand important points of Christian metaphysics. There may be occasions when we insiders also fail to grasp adequately those same points.