Articles

The parables of Jesus are so rich in spiritual instruction that the lessons to be learned from them are as varied as human experiences. When they are studied in the right spirit, the earnest seeker for divine guidance often feels as though they were addressed to him personally; and so they are if he is ready for the lessons they are intended to teach.

PROGRESS may be defined as the advancement from imperfection to perfection. Since the divine Mind is eternally and unchangeably perfect, and its counterfeit, mortal mind, is by nature evil, and so incapable of perfection, it is only the human consciousness, which seems to be a mixture of good and evil, that is capable of progress toward perfection.

UNTIL humanity is entirely free from false belief it may be said that every human being stands in need of healing. Mankind in general believe in certain material so-called laws, with their attendant pains and penalties; and this universal belief, operating through the contagion of human thought, induces a fear of sickness, which in obedience to well recognized law externalizes itself on the body in varying phases of discordant conditions.

WHEN the statement is made in Christian Science that man is the child of God, perfect, complete, free from evil and limitation, this does not refer to mortal man, the supposed man of sense. The perfect man is spiritual; the supposititious man of sense is material.

" IN the beginning," we read in the opening chapter of Genesis, "God created the heaven and the earth. " But God and His universe, including man, heaven, and earth, are without beginning of days or end of years.

FROM the earliest times mortal man has been seeking for an explanation of the mysteries which seem to surround him, for help for the difficulties of human experience, for a way to express the higher, the eternal aspirations which dwell in the human heart. Eternal Truth speaks to all men, and in the divine Mind all true thinking is included.

IN the course of human progress ideals of government have advanced from autocratic to democratic forms, from despotic sovereignty to "government of the people, by the people, for the people," as Abraham Lincoln phrased it. As a nursery of that phase of moral awakening known as the social conscience, democracy represents the highest type of human government.

THERE is an interesting distinction made by Paul in the sixth chapter of his epistle to the Galatians in the words which are there translated "burden. " In the second verse the apostle recommends the merciful conduct, "Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.

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.