Articles

Membership in a Church of Christ, Scientist, affords the individual an opportunity to benefit all mankind. This may seem a sweeping statement if one does not know that one of the requirements for church membership is the acknowledgment of God as supreme and infinite and of man as made in His image and likeness.

The author of Proverbs opens the sixteenth chapter with the familiar verse, "The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the Lord. " Turning to Young's Bible Concordance we find that the word translated "preparations" meant originally "arrangement, disposing"; while the word here given as "heart" is translated "mind" in eleven other places and "understanding" in twenty.

Man without identity would be indefinite—indistinct and indistinguishable. Without individuality man's existence would be monotonous, lacking the freshness and spontaneity that characterize the activity of Spirit.

In the Scriptures we read ( Isa. 66:13 ), "As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you; and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem.

Jesus , the human messenger of Christ, Truth, "in all points tempted like as we are" ( Hebr. 4:15 ), was always found at his post of duty, lovingly obedient to the mandates of Mind, God, and daily demonstrating his conscious awareness of Mind's presence and power.

Through the revelation that came to Mary Baker Eddy there has been vouchsafed to Christian Scientists spiritual understanding of the Master's teachings with attendant power to obey his commands to heal sickness and sin and to break the hold of death. Insofar as they remain true to this trust they are servants of mankind and leaders of nations.

Nathaniel Hawthorne tells the story of a little boy who during his childhood gazed daily at a gigantic human face carved by nature in a granite cliff dominating his town. There was a prophecy which said that some day in that region one would arise possessing the very characteristics of this face, one who would spread blessings everywhere by exemplifying great virtues.

One views with amazement the many inventions which today are presented to the world in an attempt to create greater ease in human living. Human efficiency has in a degree banished both time and space.

" To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth" ( John 18:37 ). This superb answer of Christ Jesus' to Pilate's question, "Art thou a king?" set forth the great spiritual objective for all Christendom.

The  Christian Scientist has accepted, according to the measure of his understanding the fact that life is spiritual, which means, in effect, that all the experiences of real existence are in divine consciousness, or Mind. This is a perfectly reasonable proposition, but it runs counter to the general opinions of the world's unenlightened thought.