Articles

In one corner of a much-loved Christian Science reading-room there hangs a picture of Jesus and his disciples passing through a cornfield. It is the Sabbath day, and as they are plucking and eating the corn,—or "wheat," as we in America would call it,—they are rebuked by the Pharisees for violating a Mosaic law.

It is apparent, even to the human sense, that the kingdom of heaven can enter consciousness only as the truth or reality of being is understood. Erroneous belief, under whatever name, being without truthfulness and therefore without substance, is incapable of expressing aught but a false and ephemeral view of persons and things, and never reaches beyond the boundary of illusion, of the things which never are and never have been.

SOMETIMES a student of Christian Science, in trying to solve a problem or to demonstrate over a seeming inharmony in his affairs, finds it difficult to realize the truth which he so assiduously declares and knows. Though this is undoubtedly due to a lack of spiritual perception, it sometimes happens that the stumbling-block is removed by a close analysis of the situation.

WEBSTER defines "name" as that by which something is known, that which indicates character or quality. Perhaps nature is the most nearly synonymous and comprehensive term.

Never judge nor condemn, never arraign nor censure. Not a word! Never an unclean or unkind expression.

IN the old days of blind striving after that which was tangible in religion, the writer used to feel that something should be done, taken up, in order to gain a nearer approach to God, but this helplessness arose in the doubt as to what to do. Certain standards set up by traditional religious systems lay open to follow.

IN the eighteenth chapter of Luke, Jesus gives utterance to a parable spoken, as the inspired record declares, "unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others. " In this parable the words, "God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are," present a picture of self-righteousness and self-satisfaction which, standing out in striking contrast with the picture of humility and self-abnegation portrayed by the words of the publican, "God be merciful to me a sinner," has justly received the condemnation of all thinking people.

ONE of the points of widest divergence between Christian Science and other Christian faiths is the method of accepting and applying the phrase "Thy will be done" of the Lord's Prayer. The more usual attitude is one of almost hopeless though half-rebellious resignation; the Christian Science attitude is one of expectant joy.

WHEN Mrs. Eddy affixed the name Christian Science to Christianity, she roused the world to the fact that there had never been, since the early Christian era, a frank acceptance of spiritual truth as definitely knowable, practically demonstrable, susceptible of proof.

CHRIST JESUS at one time declared that "the kingdom of God cometh not with observation: neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you. " At another time he said, "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.