Articles

The proof of love is obedience, and he who loves will obey. "If ye love me, keep my commandments," was the simple yet supreme test to which Jesus would put his disciples.

To the suffering mortal who has gone so far in the process of salvation as to ask for help, Christian Science says, "No law of God causes misery. No law of Wisdom operates injuriously.

Although it seems natural to the human mind to accept its theology as a family inheritance, such a proceeding is none the less of doubtful value, if not dangerous, in that it binds one to a religious attitude grounded in sentiment and association, and not at all in individual reason or experience. Once pledged to a religious course and accustomed to its mental routine, the inertia of the human mind is appalling.

How familiar to us all is the phrase, "Working for the Cause"! Let us examine at close range this oft-voiced expression, heard so frequently among the followers of Christian Science. The Cause of Christian Science is self-evidently the Cause of Christ; the saving, healing, life-giving, Christ Emancipator.

Our Eucharist is spiritual communion with the one God. Our bread, 'which cometh down from heaven,' is Truth.

In recalling the experiences of some of my earlier efforts to demonstrate the truth as taught in Christian Science, I am reminded of my first attempts to meet the suggestions of animal magnetism. I remember that for a time the very name, animal magnetism, seemed potent to inspire in me such fear that my most earnest effort was often hardly sufficient to re-establish the sense of harmony; and even when the victory had been won, there came no sense of assurance that I should be able to conquer in the next encounter.

Quite recently I met a gentleman on a street-car who handed me a little tract which at first I declined. On second thought it occurred to me to accept his offering, giving him in return two Christian Science reprints which I happened to have in my pocket: "The Brotherhood of Man," and "There is Rest and Peace on Earth.

Toward the close of Jesus' earthly mission, his disciples asked him this momentous question, "What shall be the sign of thy coming?" The answer was categorical and presented a kaleidoscopic view of mortal history. It seized the conditions of thought then uppermost and showed the inevitable conflict between truth and error, act following act in the mighty drama of the world's redemption.

The history of a Christian Science Church must necessarily tell of things which, like the Gospel it teaches, are in advance of its surrounding times and conditions. And why? Because the superstructure of the Christian Science Church has its foundation in Mind,—that Mind which is Spirit, Truth.

To those familiar with the life and works of Jesus Christ, the accounts of the treatment he received at the hands of his persecutors seem almost incredible, and we are astonished that one whose only work was doing good, and whose life was a constant self-sacrifice should receive such treatment. Especially when we read of the crucifixion, do we feel pity for his enemies whose blindness and hardness of heart caused them to put to such a death their best friend.