Articles

There is in philosophy no problem more baffling, and in biology none more hopeless, than the problem of consciousness. The discovery by Mrs.

Although the Christian Science teaching, that a material sense of man and things is not real because not of God (Spirit), is largely rejected, the experience of mortals compels them to admit that from the material side they derive no unmixed or permanent good, but instead an almost endless succession of disappointments, sorrows, pains, diseases, and miseries. Their objection to the statement of matter's unreality is thus shown to be groundless, for that which metes out such evil conditions to men must stand self-condemned before God, from whom only good can come.

Sometimes certain words in the Bible stand out with startling clearness, especially if we come across them at a time when our thought is open to receive a new idea of Truth. The word "therefore" is one of these.

Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed. —Jeremiah.

Primitive peoples personify all the phenomena of nature. In time these personifications become real persons to the great majority, and while men like Julius Caesar ridicule the belief in the gods, they secretly consult them in time of need, as he did before engaging in battle.

An editorial in The Daily Oregonian of June 10, 1906, in commenting upon the distinctive features of the Christian Science movement makes a statement concerning the practice of Christian Science which may be pondered with profit. The premise from which the editor's conclusion is drawn, the mistaken assumption that Christian Science in its idealism is in any way based upon Berkeley's philosophy, is at once challenged by the reader who understands somewhat of Christian Science, but the deduction in the editorial is interesting and straight to the point, and for that reason the paragraph is here quoted.

In the book of Job we read that when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, Satan came also among them. When asked if he had considered the uprightness of Job, Satan answered, "Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will be give for his life," implying that men value more highly than all else the sense of life which they possess.

The secret of one day that is really happy will serve for all days, because it will go below the incidents or chances of time and draw upon permanent and fundamental laws of conduct and character. The secret is complex like the rainbow, and I will name but one strand of the twisted light.

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.