I really loved the computer artwork on the cover of the February 1996 issue of the Journal. And that is just the beginning! I would like to cite three articles that deal with subjects I have been praying about myself.
The first piece, "The youth-and-morality article," is inspiring and thought-provoking for youth of all ages. Sin is basically just a wrong way to try to get good. Consider the water in your neighborhood gutter. Nobody chains it off and puts policemen on guard to make sure people don't drink it. Everyone knows gutter water is yucky! [In most countries,] when people are thirsty, they know they can go to a public drinking fountain where they can freely drink all the clean, pure water they want. Sin is gutter water. Articles like this one that tell people plainly how to get to the [pure] fountain [of God's goodness] instead of trying to frighten them away from the gutter, are what society needs today.
"Healing recurring errors" brought up astrology. Before I began to study Christian Science in earnest, I had read a lot about astrology. So I was surprised to find that I could determine church members' astrological signs, even though they (and I!) actively and vigorously denied power to the belief in astrology. I prayed about this, and the answer I got was that it was the belief in material birth, and not just the belief in astrology per se, that had to be denied—and replaced with the spiritual truth of man's eternalness. If you are not born, you can't have a birth sign, or the associated characteristics.... Place is just as much a false material dimension as time. It is ludicrous to believe that continents confer fiery tempers, laziness, intelligence, soul, or sang-froid. All good comes from God, not geography. And all error is unreal. Age is another erroneous belief in the material-birth/astrology constellation. What does the spinning of a planet around a star have to do with man's vitality and capabilities? Zilch!
