Articles

First Church of Christ, Scientist, San Jose, Cal. In the last decades of the nineteenth century, when Christian Science was becoming established in all the principal eastern cities, the far West was not behind in the investigation of this new teaching.

THERE arc many ways in which the Bible can be and has been read, and during the last fifty years the human mind, or at least that phase of it known as the Anglo-Saxon mind, has gone through many vicissitudes in its attitude toward the Book of books. Fifty years ago it was the secret if not openly expressed conviction of every religiously minded person of English origin, that the Bible was written word for word in heaven, and that to question any of its statements was to be in league with the powers of darkness.

ST. PAUL said, "For me to live is Christ," and in this short sentence he reveals the heart of Christian Science.

ONE vital respect wherein Christian Science differs from other denominations is in its explanation of prayer, thousands having been guided to a realization of health upon a spiritual basis from Mrs. Eddy's teaching on this subject in the first chapter of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.

IN Bible metaphor the tree is frequently used as a figure in Christ's kingdom. Earthly kingdoms as well as men are also compared to trees.

IN "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" we read: "How true it is that whatever is learned through material sense must be lost because such so-called knowledge is reversed by the spiritual facts of being in Science" ( p. 312 ).

TO some people who are not acquainted with the workings of Christian Science in a practical way, the form of government provided in the Manual of The Mother Church seems to conflict with the ideal of spiritual freedom held out in the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy.

IN the Preface to the Christian Science text-book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mrs. Eddy explains briefly but forcefully her specific relation to the establishment of the Christian Science movement.

IT has been sagely said by Emerson that "we must be as courteous to a man as to a picture which we are willing to give the benefit of a good light. " We have only to observe our thoughts and words for a short time in order to see how seldom this just consideration is shown our fellow man.

THE true meaning of the word substance was brought very forcibly to the attention of the writer, a short time since, through the earnest appeal of a friend, a man of education, who was honestly and sincerely seeking to learn more about Science. He had, however, the common trouble of being unable to distinguish between sense and Soul, the material and the spiritual, and was greatly concerned to know why man's physical body, so plain to be seen, is not substance.