Articles

When speaking of his mission, Christ Jesus said, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. " His words clearly indicate that he discerned in the hearts and minds of mankind a great lack, and that the most pressing need was one of fulfillment of God's beneficent law, rather than of condemnation.

Throughout the world at the Christmas season the name and nature of Jesus the Christ is silently and publicly reverenced. Paeans of praise resound in anthems that are sung in holy remembrance of him who trod earth's pathway in humblest guise, but who won a mighty and crowning victory over the problem of earthly existence.

Perhaps one of the most inspiring statements which our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, has left to her followers is to be found on page 244 of "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany. " It is this: "In the highest sense of a disciple, all loyal students of my books are indeed my students.

To the Christian Scientist, whose thought is continually unfolding to spiritual realities, the word "opportunity" has a very different meaning from that which it has to the unregenerate human consciousness, which regards opportunity as finite, fleeting, and uncertain. The Christian Scientist knows that it is ever present, always adequate; for to him opportunity means freedom to learn more about God—Life, Truth, and Love.

The so-called human mind looks to a reward for well-doing, and too often expects this reward to be given by persons and expressed in terms of material values, or else through personal recognition. To reward well-doing is commendable, and to express gratitude for it is most essential.

Salvation , in the sense of deliverance from all evil, has ever been the object of the best religious faith and endeavor. This was the aim of Judaism, the religion of the people among whom Jesus was born.

THE rite of baptism by water was not inaugurated by Jesus; it was practiced before his time by some religious teachers. It is mentioned in the Bible in connection with John the Baptist, the great preacher of the wilderness, whose name has been so closely associated with it ever since.

ONE'S identity is brought out or manifested by filling one's own place. No one can do another's work.

ONE morning as the writer looked out at the surrounding scenes on her way to the business portion of a city, the thought came to her, How pleasant it would be to travel over new ground every morning rather than have to go over the same old road! From frequent passing through a certain district of the city she felt that she was familiar with everything along the way. No student of Christian Science, however, can long dwell in an erroneous sense if he is desirous of being taught of God; and immediately there followed the thought, New ideas transform old scenes.

" KNOW, then, that you possess sovereign power to think and act rightly, and that nothing can dispossess you of this heritage and trespass on Love," writes Mary Baker Eddy on page 3 of "Pulpit and Press. " Her statement might be considered as the last word in the Christian Scientist's religious culture.