Articles

In the Scriptures we read of Jacob, who, in a strange place, in darkness and alone, yet had a vision of divine help, and later declared, "Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not. " Thousands of years after Jacob's time, we read of that other who knelt alone in the darkness of Gethsemane, and amid the greater darkness of the world's hatred and misunderstanding.

On page 39 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mrs. Eddy has drawn the attention of all who will heed to both the time and the way to gain freedom from all evil.

That oft repeated message of John that we "love one another," which has echoed down the centuries, became the motive call of every step in Mrs. Eddy's great demonstration of founding and binding together The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, with all its worldwide branches.

Should there be in our midst today any one who doubts the appeal that Christian Science makes to business or professional men and women, or to mankind in general, he has but to visit a Sunday service or a Wednesday evening testimony meeting, held by any Christian Science church or society, to be convinced of this latter-day wonder in churchgoing, as many choose to term it; for there he will find a generous proportion of the large audiences to be those who are not merely attendants, but earnest participants in the worship. And since these services are brief and simple in character, devoid of any attempt to hold the attention other than by providing exercises of a devotional nature, the question arises, Wherein does the real attraction lie that draws and holds the interest of thoughtful men and women of all classes? Various reasons could be given for this, and also for the phenomenal growth of the Christian Science movement, as attested by the ever increasing number of its followers, chief among which must be the feature of healing, applicable not only to physical disabilities, but to all that comes within the category of human ills.

The word "spirituality" is derived from the Latin spiritus, breath, or from spiro, I breathe. Paul said, "To be spiritually minded is life and peace.

Paul surely condensed the wisdom of the ages into twelve short words, when he said, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. " He was writing to the church at Philippi, but his message is as vital and important to us now as it was when he first declared it.

We read in the first three gospels of a person spoken of in Luke's record as "a certain ruler," who went to Jesus desiring to learn what he should do to gain eternal life. Mark relates the incident in this manner: "There came one running, and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?" The sincerity of his desire was manifest, but self-righteousness was rebuked by the Nazarene in the assurance that God is the only good.

The account in Genesis of how God created man and the universe in six days, and rested the seventh day, is familiar to many; and while the story of Adam and Eve has been to many people merely part of a mental pattern woven together in childhood, with other allegorical threads, perhaps the ordinary workaday folks have, in general, left their problems to be thrashed out by the theologians. They accept the narrative as, in any case, providing them with a satisfactory reason for a Sunday rest, every seventh day of the week! This being so, it is evident that this mental attitude, or rather the passivity of thought of so many people towards the stupendous problem of creation, is scarcely a promising preparation to the understanding of what Mrs.

"Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. " Blessed are true thoughts; for they are in and of the Father, divine Mind.

Unity, whether in international relationships, in business, home affairs, or in church organization, can be realized only in proportion as each individual recognizes and proves man's at-one-ment with divine Principle, God. It is not merely by assimilating and expressing the same views and opinions as do our neighbors that mankind manifests unity of thought and purpose, but by individual demonstration of Principle, each one in his own work; just as the longed-for establishment of universal peace will depend, not solely on the agreement of delegates with one another, but on the nations' united demonstration of individual honesty, purity of motive, and spiritual enlightenment.