Articles

What does it mean to be alone with God? Does it not mean that no one need fear that anything connected with some one else or with the actions of some one else can disturb the harmony of one who is conscious of the reality of things? Christian Science teaches that only good is real, and it follows, therefore, that the reality of being does not include anything discordant or inharmonious. To be alone with God, then, must mean to be alone with real being expressed as the spiritual man, the perfect idea, and all that we need to do is to know that this spiritual man is present, and that in this presence the false or counterfeit does vanish.

In Christian metaphysics all is divine Mind and its manifestation. Male and female are God-created, therefore they are ideas in divine Mind, the seed within itself, made manifest as man and the universe.

Material existence cannot be compared with reality. It is a counterfeit a dream which must be broken.

It is well to be continually reminded of those striking words in Luke, "Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven," and so be ever on guard to keep criticism, malice, envy, jealousy from thrusting between our neighbors and ourselves. If we are fairly successful in this fight, are we not inclined to feel that we have obeyed orders, that we are good Christian soldiers and ready for promotion to higher commands, or at least worthy, "having done all, to stand"? But have we done all that is required of us in our attitude toward mankind? Jesus' admonition was, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

One cannot but admire the expression of that which is generally termed poise in an individual. Educational institutions endeavor to foster it from graded school recitation work to university public speaking courses, laying great stress on the necessity for what they call self-reliance.

Because Jesus knew and demonstrated more of Truth than any one else, his appeal to mankind is the most tender invitation and the clearest call the world has ever heard: "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

One of the great failings of the human mind is its tendency to procrastinate. And nowhere, perhaps, is this tendency, at times, more noticeable than amongst Christian Scientists.

Skeptics may perhaps be pardoned for a confessed inability to reconcile the claim that the way of salvation is so plain that "wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein" with the fact that Christendom is divided into some one hundred and fifty different sects, each professing to find its credentials in the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. Can it be that the essential truths of Christianity were originally voiced in such ambiguous terms as to render their meaning unintelligible to subsequent generations, or is something radically wrong with the way men have undertaken to interpret the Scriptures? The chief difficulty would seem to be that, although punctilious in their efforts to comprehend the letter of the Word, Biblical students have failed to grasp the spiritual point of view which is the key to the inspired utterances.

Christian Science comes to no two of us in the same way and finds no two of us at the same starting point. We may have a sick body or a sick business and some longing for spiritual things, or perhaps some friend's experience has turned us to Christian Science for healing.

The structures and superstructures of enterprise founded upon undisguised evil often seem so vast that it appears almost a thing incredible that evil is not the controlling force of the universe. Nations have arisen that have terrorized the world; bodies, formally or informally corporate, have laid excessive taxes on what is considered necessary to man's very existence; individuals have made slaves of their fellow men, and evil has prospered.