Articles

No doubt many beginning to attend the Christian Science church services are struck by the positive tone given out by the reading, at the beginning of the Lesson, of the Explanatory Note from the Quarterly. It announces that "the Bible and the Christian Science textbook are our only preachers," and that "Scriptural texts, and their correlative passages from our denominational textbook,— these comprise our sermon.

The figure of the potter and the clay is frequently employed in the Hebrew Scriptures to illustrate the spiritual relationship between God and man. For example, we read in the sixty-fourth chapter of the book of Isaiah, "But now, O Lord, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.

The Old Testament is a continuous record of God's dealings with individuals or races and of their response to divine grace. Of the many compacts recorded, the Sinaitic covenant will be considered at this point, and its connection with the new covenant, or gospel of Christ, together with the relation of both to Christian Science.

If it is true, as John affirmed, that men are even now the sons of God, there must be a degree in which that fact can be at once perceived and made practical by human beings. The great outstanding point in the apostle's statement is that man's divine sonship is a present reality, whether or not mortals are willing to acknowledge it or to make it the guiding influence in their affairs; and there must be a way by which men may come into conscious possession of that divine manhood, here and now.

Students of Christian Science often find in the words of poets hints of the great truths declared by Mrs. Eddy.

To think as God would have us is prayer. Constantly to receive His angels into the temple of consciousness and there let them remain is to abide with Him in love and prayer.

Referring briefly to the story of Nehemiah, we recall that a large number of the Jews who had gone into captivity had escaped and had congregated at Jerusalem, which they found in utter ruin, with the great walls broken down and the nine huge gates burned. When news of the devastation reached Nehemiah he asked of King Artaxerxes permission to go to Jerusalem, and that letters be given him to "the governors beyond the river" and also to "the keeper of the king's forest" that timber might be supplied with which to rebuild the city.

In considering how constant has been the human struggle against sin and its baneful effects; how universal and unceasing have been the prayers going forth from human hearts for freedom from the seeming power of evil in human affairs, yet with sin and its effects as apparent to-day as at any time in human history, the pertinency of the question is obvious: Can sin and its effects be overcome and destroyed? It may be truly said that what is called "sin" underlies all the misfortune and suffering in human experience. The Bible declares, "When lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

The experience of each one to whom the truth of Christian Science becomes apparent is, from that time forward, the process of the unfolding of truth to the human mind, the process of regeneration. The ceaseless activity of the Word of God makes it certain that the power of this Word will at last be admitted by all men.

How many heartaches might be healed in the midst of the world's tumult if the human race would stop to ponder Mrs. Eddy's prophetic statement to be found on page 174 of Science and Health, "The thunder of Sinai and the Sermon on the Mount are pursuing and will overtake the ages, rebuking in their course all error and proclaiming the kingdom of heaven on earth.