Articles

IT is a fundamental idea of all Christian teaching that the heavenly Father cares for His children— guides, protects, and sustains them. Without this essential doctrine, Christianity would lose its appeal; for men are not satisfied with theoretical teachings, even though they do appear reasonable and promise much in the future.

WHAT occasions we have for constant rejoicing, in view of the fact that Christian Science is a religion that not only designates how to receive, but how to share, those blessings "from above"! God's law of recompense is inevitable, demanding that each share in accordance with his spiritual light, growth, and achievement. This law of Love is beautifully expressed in the words of a familiar hymn: "For we must share, if we would keep That blessing from above: Ceasing to give, we cease to have, Such is the law of love.

WHEN Joshua stood before the congregations of Israel and uttered his stirring words, "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," he sent forth an admonition that Christians of to-day may well ponder with prayerful sincerity. The children of Israel had left behind them the Egyptian gods, and had progressed by ascending steps beyond the aggressive foes manifesting themselves as Perizzites, Canaanites, Hittites, Jebusites.

IN the twenty-second chapter of Matthew it is written that when the Pharisee asked, "Master, which is the great commandment in the law?" Jesus answered: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment.

AT a certain stage in the writer's study of Christian Science there arose a keen desire to subscribe for The Christian Science Monitor. To satisfy this desire seemed rather difficult, owing to a sense of lack; but, having learned that a right desire is certain to be fulfilled, she knew that the way would open, and that she must be alert and willing to follow divine Love's leading.

MANY earnest Christian Scientists have experienced, while working out what seemed to human sense a long problem, moments of thought-weariness, when the limit of endurance appeared to have been reached, and the longed-for deliverance seemed to be as far away as ever. To one student came such an hour during a struggle with an apparently tenacious erroneous condition, when inspiration and spontaneity had fled and work seemed to be an increasingly heavy burden carried with lagging footsteps.

MARY BAKER EDDY has written in "Miscellaneous Writings" ( p. 276 ), "In Christian Science the midnight hour will always be the bridal hour, until 'no night is there.

WHEN Paul gave the Galatians his far-seeing advice, "If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit," he called attention to the fact that, while many are quick to acknowledge that man is spiritual, they are not so quick to conform their lives to the truth; that while they are willing to declare God to be All and His universe to be the universe of good, while in their words they admit God to be the only cause and creator, still they are continually fearing, even expecting, some evil, some misfortune, to befall them. It seems impossible for them to grasp the fact that if God is the only cause, and infinitely good, the effect of this good and only cause must always be good.

IN order to awaken mortals to the facts of reality, of Spirit, the greatest Teacher of these facts the world has ever known, Christ Jesus, used many illustrations drawn from everyday human experiences. Some of his parables and similes were word pictures of great beauty, while others were more homely references, such as that of the mending of a worn garment with old rather than with new material, or the effect produced on a large quantity of meal by a small bit of yeast or leaven.

THE great longing of mankind is to experience freedom. All, in greater or less degree, think of themselves as bound.