Articles

If there is only one real cause to which all real effects are to be attributed, there can be only one causative Mind, alias God. Jesus declared God to be Spirit, and spoke of Him as "the only true God;" but if there be many real causes to which many real effects are to be attributed, it follows of necessity that there must likewise be many causative intelligences, that is, many gods.

There is probably no message of the Scriptures given to mankind which would afford more relief to the wayfarer in the wilderness of doubt and discouragement, discord and woe, than that proclaimed by John the Baptist, who said, "The kingdom of heaven is at hand," — the golden hour of "now" which dawned in its fulness through the ministry of Christ Jesus, the hour in which we may realize health, holiness, and harmony. Yesterday has gone; tomorrow is but an expectancy.

In the annals of the early Christian fathers, the following tradition is found respecting the breaking of the first tables of the law which Moses brought down from the mount to the children of Israel. The first tables, it is said, were inscribed with the "primal and eternal law of God," that "man is created in God's image.

Until men and women begin to understand that all there is of power belongs to God, and to know that God is unchanging Principle, the all-knowing, all-wise Mind, the cry, "I am afraid," is apt to hamper, harass, and hold them in bondage. The myriad channels through which mortals allow fear to operate, do not need to be enumerated here, as such a list would not tend to decrease or destroy fear.

It is to be expected that when the historiographers of the not very distant future come to treat of the epoch in which we are at present living, they will be practically unanimous in deciding that its most striking characteristic was the great moral advance culminating in purer and more self-denying ideals which was manifested by the world in general, but especially by those peoples who were commonly recognized as being in the forefront of enlightenment. It will be perceived that this upward striving took the form, first of a vague but widespread feeling of dissatisfaction with the material conditions which everywhere held men in bondage, engendering egotism, want, and woe with their resultant strife; and secondly of a determined endeavor to improve these conditions in every department of human experience.

Happy indeed is the student of Christian Science who recognizes in Christ Jesus his lawgiver; and happier still is he who translates the Master's parables into illustrations and interprets his miracles into demonstrations of divine law. All so-called natural sciences have been discovered or created by the recognition of uniformities or similarities of law and manifestation by those whose thoughts were tending in that particular direction, as in the case of Newton and Copernicus.

For many years people have used the phrase, "Give the devil his due," when in a charitably disposed frame of mind they were ready to gloss over and condone certain evil deeds and conditions, on the supposition that even the so-called "prince of darkness" might not be so black as he was painted, and that the proverbial "dog in the manger" might have been a nervous animal, whose snarling and snapping should therefore be overlooked. In a situation where evil seemed rampant and for the time being appeared to hide everything else, a rebuke administered to the instigator of it all, brought the old reply, "Oh, well, you must 'give the devil his due,' you know.

There is both pleasure and advantage in work well done. The skill a workman displays in doing his work not only calls out praise and reward, but it also advances his usefulness in society and promotes the cause or profession which he represents, rather than himself.

Standing on the seashore recently and watching the tide slowly creep over the flat expanse of sand, my attention was caught by a sudden inrush of water, and I looked for the cause. Some distance away the breakers were rolling in over a ridge of rocks, and now and again a wave larger than the rest broke with such force that the effect was felt over the whole of the intervening space, and caused the apparently sudden disturbance at my feet.

The flight of a bird conveys such an impression of swiftness, power, and joy, that it is little wonder flying has become a poetical term for thought which directs itself on high, indifferent to the call of the senses. The thought of flying always holds a secret charm for the adult as for the child; it seems to lift us above the ordinary earthly experience into a new atmosphere of novel sensations and exciting possibilities.