Articles

When the great apostle of the Gentiles laid down the rule for those who had put on "the Lord Jesus Christ," that they were to "owe no man any thing, but to love one another," he went on to explain, with the grave responsibility of a teacher sent by God, why this exalted ideal was to be practised: "For he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. " This comprehensive command for the, Christian's conduct, which surely must have been the outcome of Paul's own immovable faith and his conviction of man's spiritual sonship, concerning which he says, "There is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things," contains no sanction, no license whatever for either borrowing or lending.

In the second chapter of II Kings we read: "And it came to pass, when they were gone over, that Elijah said unto Elisha, Ask what I shall do for thee, before I be taken away from thee. And Elisha said, I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me.

A mid human conflicts, the question sometimes arises: "Does God really exist? Is there a Supreme Being in whom we can put our trust?" In grateful remembrance of numberless evidences of the gradual overcoming of evil in his own experience through Christian Science, the Christian Scientist unhesitatingly responds: "Yes; our Father-Mother God, as revealed in Christian Science, does exist and is supreme. " He does not expect to be able to prove this by argument alone, nor is he satisfied with argumentative refutation of the claims of opponents; but he looks always to the infinite Mind for final judgment of the issue in the human heart.

If those who maintain so insistently that the fleshly man is God's man, would only stop to consider what Jesus and his immediate followers said about the flesh, it would at least give them cause for serious thought. St.

The credibility and value of the religious belief of any class of men, so far as they are considered rational beings, will always bear a due proportion to the efforts they make to investigate every feature, and to submit the problems involved therewith to the tribunal of reason. This explains the devotion of most of those who have espoused the cause of Christian Science.

As Christ Jesus journeyed among the hill-towns of Cæsarea Philippi that lie between the sources of Jordan and Pharpar, he asked a question that must give every man pause at some time or other in his experience; namely, "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" It may be that with a consciousness ever seeking symbols to make clear to material sense the parting of the ways which lead earthward and heavenward, the Master had caught a spiritual suggestion from the geographical proximity of the sources of the rivers Jordan and Pharpar,—Jordan, that has symbolized to Jew and Christian the baptism of Spirit, the purification from all fleshliness, and Pharpar, the river of Syria whose waters were not sufficient to cleanse Naaman of his leprosy, though he esteemed them more highly than the rivers of Israel, — these may have served to symbolize to Jesus the relative values of Spirit and matter. All men will agree that only that which profits is of real value.

One is sometimes plied with questions concerning Christian Science which it is difficult to answer satisfactorily offhand, and this may be due to the fact that no religion can be thoroughly understood with the head alone. The world has accepted various religions, not because any of them are easy solutions of the problem of the universe,—none of them are,—but because most men wish to pin their faith to some system of religious thought, and they accept that which seems to them to be the most rational.

How many Christian Scientists have attended a Wednesday evening meeting where every one gave a testimony? At one such meeting there were only five present, their ages ranging from twelve to eighteen years. Tears of gratitude filled the eyes of the Reader, as one by one the fresh young voices spoke lovingly of the help which Christian Science had been to them since they had last met there.

The apostle John tells us that "the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. " In that section of the sermon on the mount which comprises the fifth chapter of Matthew, exclusive of the first sixteen verses, Jesus shows the relation of the Christ-idea to divine law and also to human legislation; and he illustrates his teaching by expounding certain of the commandments and laws of Moses in the light of this idea.

Christian Science teaches that those who would be genuinely honest and truthful are bound to adopt the code of spiritual perfection indicated in the words of the prophet, "Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord," and again enjoined upon them by the Master in his sermon on the mount. Such true and honest testimony involves right thinking at every turn: it denies every appearance of evil and mentally maintains the unchangeableness of the infinite good, and its ever-presence.