Articles

THE most common test of the quality of indifference is its effect on its object. If this effect be negligible, it is held that indifference may be blameless, at times may be desirable.

In the book of Job we find this question: "If a man die, shall he live again?" and in the eleventh chapter of John we read these words of Jesus spoken at the grave of Lazarus: "Take ye away the stone. " The question of Job was fully answered by this statement of our Master, and in answer to the doubt expressed by Martha concerning his ability to overcome the mortal and corruptible, he uttered these wonderful words: "I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.

If Christian Science were not practical, it would be of no use to any one. It is often said that Christian Science and common sense are one.

All down through the ages the Master's sayings and their interpretation have been the subject of a multitude of discussions and have formed the basis of many different creeds and denominations. His message is reflected to some degree in every advancing step of civilization.

When the disciples pointed out to the Master the beauty and substantiality of the temple which to them, and perhaps to all their Jewish contemporaries, was the most wonderful structure in the world, he informed them that every stone thereof would be thrown down; thereby pointing to the final overthrow of every material thing. Having in mind that all materiality "profiteth nothing," and must meet destruction by profitable truth, he realized how high the Babel of error had been builded, and with his clear, spiritual perception he was in a position to prophesy with scientific certainity its utter destruction, and the commotion which might accompany this destruction.

In the Bible there are many references to angels, and humanity in general has come to regard the term as representing something at least supernatural, if not indeed imaginary. The recorded events in which angels participated are considered by some with superstitious fear and awe; by many with skepticism, as being merely mythical; and by others as allegories.

Sometimes the argument is advanced that the "first cause" is unknowable, or, if the person be a theologian, that God is unknowable. This is frequently stated with an air of finality, and generally is supported by some quotation of Scripture torn from its natural context.

To the student of Christian Science the incidents related in the Bible are not regarded merely as records of past and gone human personalities, but serve rather to typify various states and stages of mortal thought in process of correction. Some very good persons, such as Jacob, David, and Elijah, are known to have made grave mistakes; but these mistakes, when seen and corrected, served only to advance these spiritual seers into yet higher realms of vision, even as men today "may rise on stepping-stones of their dead selves to higher things.

As mentioned in Scripture the threshing floor is typical of the point where the accumulated result of patience and industry is gathered, and where the good and useful is separated from the bad and useless. It is a metaphor freely used in the Bible and is synonymous with purification, as every Bible student is aware.

In the long ago there was a man of visions,—spiritual visions, different indeed from human conceptions. Patiently he waited by the river Hiddekel, for "the time appointed was long," until, lifting his eyes, he beheld in all its shining glory the spiritual idea of man immersed in goodness all divine.