Articles

AS hopeless as the task of attempting to lift ourselves by our own boot straps is the effort to lift ourselves out of error without an understanding of God—to try to dispel the darkness of error without the light of Truth. Yet how often we try to do this very thing! Animal magnetism is the fraudulent attraction of materiality; and this fraudulent attraction, if yielded to, tends to mislead us as Christian Scientists into dwelling with material sense, thinking about it, accepting its suggestions unchallenged, taking them for granted, and building up bit by bit, detail by detail, what we may call a mountainous false claim.

JESUS said, "He that humbleth himself shall be exalted. " If the spiritual meaning of these words could be realized, it would assuredly enable the student to rise into a closer walk with God.

IN the fifty-fifth chapter of Isaiah we read, "Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not?" In human affairs how many of us have experienced the illusive nature of the things we thought we must have! When we got them we were still unsatisfied. The pleasure which in expectation we were to receive vanished on the receiving.

IN every activity of the Christian Science movement there arise times when error seems to pervade the mental atmosphere and threatens to destroy the harmony which should prevail among those working for the furtherance of the Cause which all true Christian Scientists have at heart. During one of these periods of apparent want of unity, a student and worker gained much light and healing from a careful study of Hymn 11 of the Christian Science Hymnal, the first verse of which runs: "Why search the future and the past? Why do ye look with tearful eyes, And seek, far off, for Paradise? Beneath thy feet, Life's pearl is cast.

IN order to acquire a working knowledge of Christian Science it is necessary to learn something of the truth about God's law of cause and effect. Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of this Science, gives a fundamental statement on this law on page 173 of "Miscellaneous Writings," where she declares: "Mind is its own great cause and effect.

MANY centuries have passed since the scribe used his metaphor of a garden to record the early chapters of human history. It has remained for Christian Science to turn its dazzling searchlight upon these early records of the race and expose the whole vast material fraud.

AS usually considered, "vision" relates to the material sense of sight, to the effect produced by light on the eye. The metaphysical definition of vision implies a far deeper and more comprehensive meaning than that belonging to material sense testimony.

TO Jesus on the Mount of Olives came his disciples asking, "What shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?" They were looking for the kingdom of heaven, but in spite of Jesus' teaching they had not yet learned what and where the kingdom of heaven is. They were still seeking a material sign, a speedy and spectacular herald, which should convince a material people that the Christ had come, and that with a "Lo here" or a "Lo there" there should appear a humanly visible kingdom, probably as richly imposing in its material splendor and power as the empire of Rome.

IN considering the question of dealing with evil through Truth, two statements of our beloved Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, stand out as beacon lights in the thought of the student of Christian Science. The first of these is to be found in her book "Miscellaneous Writings" ( p.

GOD is the one and only Lawmaker, and His standard, purpose, and plan for His creation is perfection. Christ Jesus, in his wonderful discourse, the Sermon on the Mount, sums up all his spiritual precepts, as given in the fifth chapter of Matthew's Gospel, in the one all-inclusive statement, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.