Articles

Paul wrote, "Now is the accepted time," and the following lines from the pen of a little known poet of the present day are significant of the awakening of thought to a better concept of opportunity:— They do me wrong who say I come no more When once I knock and fail to find you in; For every day I stand outside your door And bid you wake and rise to fight and win. Heretofore the poetical literature of opportunity has been but the reflection of a very limited view of the subject.

In its general acceptation the cross is regarded as an instrument of punishment, and metaphorically is used to convey the idea of the punishment itself and the pain which it inflicts. The sign of the cross, however, even among many ancient nations, was invariably emblematic of immortality.

Man is a divine idea, an individualized conception and product of the activity of the infinite and divine Mind. This is, however, the spiritual and immortal man, not the mortal and finite concept of man expressed in a physical form, which presents a seeming life, intelligence, and action to the physical senses.

After Paul has classified the "diversities of gifts" which come from the one Spirit, he summarizes their excellence as follows: "And now abideth faith, hope, love" (Rev. Ver.

As the truth is unfolded to the loyal Christian Scientist, and he thereby grows in spiritual understanding, he becomes increasingly conscious of his responsibility. He asks himself what this new life means to him and what it stands for to his neighbor; he welcomes the thought that he has come to recognize his power and his influence.

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.