Articles

AT a time in Jesus' experience when he desired to be apart for quiet communion and spiritual refreshment, the multitude followed him, and lovingly and unselfishly he turned at once to minister to their needs. He taught them many wonderful things, he healed their sick, then he fed them; thus exercising the dominion bestowed upon man by unwavering recognition of the omnipotent and omnipresent goodness of God.

THE desire to succeed is generally regarded as a worthy ambition, especially if the end to be attained is one which mortal man believes will bring to himself and others a clearer realization of the ever-presence of good. Every honest endeavor to benefit humanity is commendable, and in due time it receives "a just recompense of reward.

Although unknown to spiritual consciousness, the word obstruction suggests to the human sense a very palpable hindrance to progress. Because of a long-continued habit of material warfare against obstructive conditions, be they mental or material, we have perhaps acquired an attitude of resistance to such conditions which hinders rather than facilitates their overcoming.

It may be said that Christian Science has withdrawn the curtains which for centuries have hung before the doors of heaven, and allowed mankind to look within at the wonders of a perfect universe. A glimpse into perfection has instantaneously healed many of their sicknesses, and has redeemed many others from a crushing sense of sin.

Through the study of Christian A Science the Scriptures are becoming clear to me, and passages in both the Old and New Testaments which once were inconsistent, obscure of meaning, or unbelievable, have become "a lamp unto my feet. " The Old Testament with its many instances of God's power to free mankind from evil conditions by marvelous deliverances, causing the sea to roll back and the enemy to be vanquished where mortal means were inadequate, I formerly regarded as mythology, for in the light of reason, as I then argued, I could not do otherwise.

On apt occasions the French people quote one of their old proverbs: " Qui s'excuse, s'accuse " (He who excuses himself, accuses himself). This saying is indeed quite correct in its analysis.

The questions which most deeply concern human existence can never be satisfactorily answered until we gain an understanding of the cause of things. Of necessity, this cause must contain within itself all power because there could be nothing greater than itself; all presence because it could not be separated from its effect; all wisdom because there could be no intelligence apart from it.

In his work of arousing humanity to the all-presence of God and the closeness of our relation to Him, Jesus chose the name of Father as typifying most clearly our utter dependence upon Him, His loving interest in our every-day needs, and His infinite power to supply them. Christians have accepted this term for God in theory, but in practise they have to a large extent set aside all that it implies of protection and maintenance in human conditions, and continued to scramble for one material thing after another to supply their various needs, experiencing as a result all sorts of discord and privation.

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.