Articles

In Christian Science patience is a character-building force, and not a mere expression of passivity. It is more than waiting, more than contentment, more than resignation.

One day the writer was walking up a hill just on the outskirts of an industrial town, and on reaching the top turned to enjoy for a few moments the clear air and the prospect about him. Away beneath lay the factories and workshops of the town, also the works where he himself was employed.

On page 410 of Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy says: "Every trial of our faith in God makes us stronger.

It is recorded in the book of Genesis that there came a time in human experience when wickedness seemed to prevail to such an extent that the thoughts and imaginations of mortals were only evil. This condition of thought led to the inevitable result, namely, error's self-destruction, and it was externalized in what is known in Biblical history as the great flood.

What is a prophet? According to the dictionary a prophet is one who interprets and delivers divine messages, or one who interprets Scripture and explains religious subjects. Another definition is "a religious leader.

While the average mortal has little need to have human affection defined to him, on the other hand he has every need to understand divine Love and to put into practice what he understands of it. We have all had, either in small or in large degree, our experience of human affection, from the unselfish love of the mother for her child to the selfish so called love which so many "lovers" express for the object of their affections.

A Careful student of the Scriptures will observe that frequent mention is made of the lifting up of the eyes. We read that just prior to raising Lazarus from the dead Jesus lifted up his eyes; that before healing the man who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech Jesus looked up to heaven; and yet again, before feeding the multitude, he took the loaves and the fishes and looking up to heaven blessed and brake them.

From the time of the ancient prophets men have found in the birds the symbol of freedom, the emblem of joyous liberation from the burden and bondage with which mortal mind has endowed the man of its own creating. In the eagle David saw expressed the attributes of youth, —freedom, buoyancy, strength, activity, hope, so commonly associated with the heyday of life.

[This sermon, the manuscript of which is in possession of The Christian Science Board of Directors, was prepared by Mrs. Eddy, evidently for oral delivery, over thirty-five years ago, hence its literary style differs somewhat from that of her later writings.

TEACHERS at swimming schools have a way of testing the courage of pupils, and at the same time of stimulating their confidence in the sustaining strength of what on the surface appears to be only a yielding flux of negative consistency, by sending them out on the springboard as soon as they have mastered the first lessons. The more courageous may then be observed to accept the ordeal with natural abandon, satisfied that the sagacity of the instructor would demand no effort beyond reason; others again will walk to the end of the board with no less display of valor, but at the crucial moment their attitude may suddenly change and show signs of incongruous fear, and neither persuasion nor example can induce them to act up to their professions made so bravely but a minute before.