At the threshold of another year we pause to give thanks for the lessons of the one just past and to prepare ourselves for the greater lessons which invite us to go forward. The true student of history can never fail to see in human events what President Bonney, at the World's Parliament of Religions, in 1894, called "the interposition of divine Providence in human affairs." At times this manifestation is so startling that we can readily see why the old Hebrew seers so naturally called it the hand of the Almighty. Not only in the Scripture records, but in modern events do we see evidences of the "power that makes for righteousness," and this, too, when to the human sense evil is about to prevail. Again and again have the oppressed been delivered when even hope seemed well-nigh dead, and this deliverance usually came in the least expected way, and always, whether generally recognized or not, through some brave and selfless soul who believed in right more than in wrong, and who inspired others with faith to dare and to do.
Nothing is more sure than this, that the nation which stands for right can "never be moved," to use the Bible phrasing. Here let it be understood that God does not withhold the divine aid until His people are ready to perish, but sad to tell, men have too often forgotten to seek this aid until all else had failed, although they never fail to find it when their motives are pure enough. Neither the subtleties of the "old serpent" nor the more open brutalities of mortal aggressiveness can hinder the steady advance of the reign of "our Lord, and of his Christ,"—the universal reign of Truth and Love.
In reviewing the history of nations we may read our own individual history, for in Christian Science we learn that the rule of divine Principle is unvarying,—the spiritual and moral laws which govern men and nations are ever the same, and Christian Science throws a wonderful light upon all human affairs, individual and national alike. We see that a faltering trust in the power of God, good, always implies a greater or less belief in the asserted power of evil, and produces corresponding results in human affairs. It will not do to wash one's hands in self-satisfied innocency, saying, "I have done no wrong," yet denying the allness of divine Principle. Christian Science teaches us to search diligently within the camp of our own consciousness for the traitor thought which would cling to the "accursed thing," as did Achan, and when this thought is uncovered and destroyed we shall move with resistless power upon the foes without that would hinder our advance.
