Articles

During the centuries immediately preceding the birth of Jesus, Hebrew, as a spoken language, gradually fell into disuse, being displaced by the more colloquial dialect known as Aramaic. Evidence of this gradual change is to be found even in the days of Nehemiah, who lived about 450 B.

Perhaps there is no word in the English language that conveys to human thinking two such diametrically opposed meanings as does the word "ambition. " It is usually taken to mean the desire and effort to rise to the top, to acquire riches or attain a position of prominence, oftentimes without regard to the unhappiness that this climbing may bring to others.

In the fourth chapter of II Kings is related an incident the meaning of which is revealed by spiritual understanding gained through the study of Christian Science. This is the story of the widow who, when faced with the creditor's threat to take into bondage her two sons, appealed for aid to the prophet Elisha.

In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" ( p. 58 ) Mary Baker Eddy says, "Home is the dearest spot on earth, and it should be the centre, though not the boundary, of the affections.

It is comforting to learn in Christian Science that evil is not a real entity, and that it has no more apparent power than we, in belief, give it. Evil is nothing claiming to have entity and presence.

On a little girl's bookshelf long ago there was a worn copy of "Aesop's Fables," much read and often pondered. The little girl has grown up and learned something of Christian Science, but she still finds food for thought in many of those brief stories.

Answering the question, "What is God?" our beloved Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, has given this concise and comprehensible definition in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" ( p. 465 ): "God is incorporeal, divine, supreme, infinite Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love.

As a result of a world-wide financial crisis and the political unrest which the present age has witnessed, humanity with its perplexing problems of fear, lack, poverty, unemployment, and distress is constantly turning to new experiments. Many plans are being formed with the hope of aiding the needy and of regulating wealth, production, agriculture, employment, and commerce.

It is a rather common assumption that the mental enlightenment out of which human progress is born is the result of one form or another of scholastic enterprise and endeavor. Research in the analysis and synthesis of factual and objective knowledge is credited with having provided us with the bases for innumerable advances in the well-being of mankind, especially in contemporary civilization.

Paul of Tarsus, that valiant campaigner for Christianity, sent a message to the church at Corinth which has a special significance for Christian people today. "Though we walk in the flesh," he wrote, "we do not war after the flesh: (for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds).