Articles

Some people consider themselves especially enlightened because in their approach to human problems they are, as they may express it, realistic in their thinking, or they believe the common-sense or matter-of-fact point of view to be the only sound attitude to maintain in any situation. This often means dealing with evil and error, in whatever manner these may present themselves, as real and formidable, perhaps even unconquerable, and preparing to deal with these false claims by such human recourse and on such terms as may seem available or expedient, or by fighting evil with more evil, or by surrendering to it as inevitable.

Christ Jesus said, "What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. " To the searcher for release from sickness and disease, this statement is of the utmost importance; first, because in the words "when ye pray" is plainly indicated the method of healing advocated by the Master, and secondly, because in the words "believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them," it is shown that healing will follow confident and expectant prayer.

It has ever been the earnest hope and desire of mankind to attain to that state of harmony which is known as the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven usually means to the individual that which constitutes his concept of happiness and goodness.

It is related in the Gospel of John that Jesus once said to Nicodemus, "Very, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. " This remarkable utterance revealed the great fundamental requirement necessary to the success of every seeker after righteousness.

If we stop honestly to consider why we are not bringing out more harmony in our experience, or why we are not making greater progress Spiritward, we are apt to find it is because we are judging "according to the appearance. " Christ Jesus admonished us, "Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.

" Choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. " So spoke Joshua to the people of Israel, after enumerating to them the good they had received when they had put their faith in God's guidance.

The light in which Christian Science presents the true meaning of resurrection arouses a genuine incentive to live truly, to become spiritually-minded, and to claim as ever present our eternal state of spiritual being. By revealing the divine Principle upon which to demonstrate immortal life, wherein is freedom from sorrow, aloneness, sin, sickness, and death, Christian Science obviates in our thinking the false sense of preparation for death, either as something inevitable or as a steppingstone to eternal life.

Satisfactory and profitable employment, broadly viewed, is something desired and sought at some time by almost every human being. When employment is considered merely as a localized material activity, subject to and controlled by the will of many persons, it becomes an illusive something, here today, gone tomorrow; something subject to chance and change; something to be gained and lost through dishonest practices, wealth, social prominence, political pressure.

With pertinency and tenderness our loving Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, spoke these words in her first address in The Mother Church in 1895 (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 110) : "Beloved children, the world has need of you,—and more as children than as men and women: it needs your innocence, unselfishness, faithful affection, uncontaminated lives.

And so I find it well to come For deeper rest to this still room. So wrote the poet Whittier in his beautiful defense of the Quaker meeting; and he goes on to say: And from the silence multiplied By these still forms on either side, The world that time and sense have known Falls off and leaves us God alone.