THE following passage, from Professor Drummond's book, "The New Evangelism," is interesting when viewed from the standpoint of Christian Science: "No thought is more frequent, or more solemn, in the Biblical accounts of the last things, than that at the appearing of Christ a mighty change will sweep over the moral world—a sudden revolution in men's opinions—a swift reversal of all human judgments. And this is not an unlooked for crisis. It is the natural effect of the new environment . . . upon organisms well or ill prepared to live in it."
We might proceed to illustrate the above statement by pointing to a pond in which there were some frogs, also some goldfish. Let us suppose that on account of particularly dry weather the pond dried up. What would happen to the frogs and fish? Why this,—the fish would perish, but the frogs would live on and find a new home. And why? Because the fish had only one environment,— water,— and when that was taken away and the new environment—the air—suddenly thrust upon them, they perished, because they were unable to correspond with, or live in, this new element. With the frogs, however, it was different. Although born in water, they had at a later period developed lungs which enabled them to breathe the air, and so when their pond dried up they were able to live on.
Now this may illustrate, in a certain sense, our position to-day. According to the Bible, our so-called material environment is to be destroyed. Peter says, "The elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up." He adds, "Nevertheless we, . . . look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." If, then, this great change is to come to the world of sense, the question is, Can we correspond with or live in spiritual conditions? Are we developing a capacity to breathe in the atmosphere of Spirit? In the case of the fish, the sudden appearance of the new environment—the air—showed that they were not prepared to live in it. They were not able to live in it because their lives had been spent in a wholly different environment, and thus it would be with mankind if they were unprepared to live in the atmosphere of Spirit. But at the very time that mortals find their material supports failing them, Christian Science comes to reveal the fact that man's capacities are spiritual, and through the recognition of this fact those who otherwise are hopeless find that in God, Spirit, not in matter, they really live and move and have their being. Although this discovery may call for the surrender of belief in materiality, as the basis of life, it soon leads to the unfoldment of faculties previously unknown, by which the provisions of spiritual being are recognized and utilized.
