Editorials

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.

What can be said of coldness in the church, lack of caring, lack of spiritual affection? Do we rejoice spontaneously over the warmth and love we find in our church body? Or do we have cause for sadness? Our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, was outspoken on this subject after addressing a communion service in The Mother Church in 1896. With compassionate realism she wrote to friends, "I find the general atmosphere of my church as cold and still as the marble floors.

Current theories of medicine and biology define many of the physical difficulties associated with passing years as breakdowns in bodily functions. A material mentality argues that keeping fit may become increasingly difficult, that one's energy and vitality can no longer be consistently maintained.