Articles

From a strictly medical point of view the only objection that can be urged against the practice of Christian Science is that the patient who places himself under the care of one of its practitioners dispenses with the use of drugs and other material remedies, and by so doing he neglects to employ agencies which might restore him to health or at least alleviate his sufferings. Even the most rigid adherents of the drugging system do not claim that drugs are needed every time the harmonious action of the human system is interfered with.

Prayer is a sacred and an entirely individual link with God, indeed it is humanity's one point of contact with an unseen Father, and Christian Science does not sunder this bond, but strengthens it in each of the old weak points. Notwithstanding this fact, one sometimes meets young students who, while expressing the deepest reverence for the teachings of Christian Science, own to a feeling of some uncertainty with regard to the question of prayer.

Whenever a new and higher vision of Truth is proclaimed to the world, human ignorance and prejudice invariably render contemporary impressions regarding its advent and meaning more or less hazy and inaccurate, even as a dense fog causes objects to appear abnormal and indistinct. A righteous estimate of any great spiritualizing movement can be acquired only as the germinal concept from which it springs is distinguished from the incidental and contingent features which appear in the course of its historical development and which constitute its mental and moral environment.

By what authority doest thou these things? and who gave thee this authority?—Matthew, 21:23. It may seem almost superfluous to define so wellknown a word as authority, but since this word has several shades of meaning it may be advisable for the sake of clearness to agree upon those definitions that concern us in this article.

If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed. —Jesus.

DURING the last fifty years or more, among Protestant congregations there has come a change of thought regarding pastors and preaching. In former days the sermon was listened to with almost the same reverence as that given to the reading of the Bible, and it was considered that both in his ministry and in his sermon the pastor spoke with authority.

THERE is no knowledge more desirable than a scientific understanding of the spiritual forces which govern man, but up to the time of Mrs. Eddy's discovery of Christian Science in the year 1866, no knowledge seemed less attainable.

OUR debt of gratitude and love to Christianity and its Founder is too great ever" to be adequately paid. Those whose lives have been fullest of good and worthy deeds feel that they have received so much and given so little that their salvation is by divine grace and not by personal merit.

WHEN mortals, in their capacity as individuals or as nations, cease to contend against each other's real interests, and unite in destroying their common enemies, they will bring peace on the earth. When the energy heretofore expended in resenting wrongs by attempting to destroy life shall have been turned into Christianly scientific methods of establishing justice by saving life and healing hate, the era of "good will toward men" will have arrived.

AS offspring of the infinite we are ever in God's presence, but we are conscious of this only as we entertain good and right thoughts. It is insufficient to bask emotionally in the glow of another's good thoughts, or to sit in the intellectual enthralment of the contemplation of great possibilities.