Articles

In much of the teeming literature of the day, and in the swift-flowing current of popular thinking, the doctrine of heredity is treated solely from a materialistic and pessimistic standpoint, and is associated with the demon rather than with the angel. Popular unbelief in spiritual entities, and popular ignorance of eternal Truth, hold heredity to be a mightier factor in our lives than infinite Love, and so, inferentially at least, as a mightier power per se.

Amid the stress and turmoil of a material civilization embracing widely differing ideals and involving rapidly shifting conditions, most individuals find themselves so beset by a multiplicity of pressing and perplexing problems that they are blinded to the fact, made so clear in Christian Science, that the one really fundamental consideration is spiritual, and that all specific human problems bear a merely incidental relation to this issue. According to the rationale of living which appeals to the world at large, the term spirituality stands for a condition of thought and feeling quite apart from the realistic and so-called called practical things of life.

Through the efforts of earnest men who have appreciated the value of the teaching contained in the Bible, its message of truth has been translated into all the languages of the world. Among peoples who had no written language, the teaching has been given by the invention of signs which would express the sounds of the spoken language.

At this season of the year, when our thoughts are by custom turned to the blessings which brighten our lives, it is well worth while to listen to the ringing note of thankfulness to God which sounds from cover to cover of the Scriptures. In the Psalms it rises frequently to an ecstasy of praise and adoration, now ascribing all power and all good to God, now exhorting the people to acknowledgment of His mercy and kindness.

Looking back over the vicissitudes of King Nebuchadnezzar, "when his heart was lifted up, and his mind hardened in pride," the pride of indulging the thought of human accomplishment, Daniel's statement to him, "And seven times shall pass over thee, till thou know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will," seems to be closely connected with the fourth commandment, showing clearly what to avoid in order to come under the protection of divine law. In carefully studying this commandment, a perfect order for the fulfilment of our daily work is revealed, and we find, as we follow this order faithfully in the accomplishment of whatever we have to do, whether it be the lessons of the child at school or the complicated problems of the business man, that all things are brought into unity with God's law.

Many have been comforted by the reassuring and oft-quoted words from Revelation, "And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. " Surely there is no more eagerly expected or more joyfully accepted statement than this message, announcing to the tortured sense with the tone of conviction, "Now is come salvation, and strength.

There is sure to come a time in the experience of each and every individual when a ray of spiritual Truth appears, and human consciousness is so touched with the message of the Christ that it begins in some degree to recognize the meaning of a present and living Saviour. Thought turns spontaneously to the light, and hope is stimulated with the bright prospect of that freedom and peace which personal sense and human systems deny.

The very sunshine of God's mercy, warm, bright, gentle, vital as with the breath of spring, touches with healing the troubled thought of that human consciousness which catches something of the spiritual signification, as interpreted by Christian Science, of the words, "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. " "All things work together for good," said Paul.

While Christian Scientists frequently quote, as their authority for healing sickness and sin, the words of Jesus, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also," they also quote, as setting forth the promise of Christian Science, his familiar statement, "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. " Sometimes, however, we fail to give proper significance to the first word in the verse, the conjunction "and," which is really very essential because it makes this knowledge of the truth which makes "free" contingent on something preceding this verse.

According to the dictionaries, solitude and loneliness are synonymous terms, but when examined under the lens of metaphysics their difference is seen to be antithetical. This contrast is emphasized by a comparison of their definitions.