Articles

Prepared July, 1899, and adopted by the Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, Boston, Mass. , December 22, 1899, and will in due time appear in the Church Manual.

We herewith publish another valuable judicial decision relating to the status of Christian Scientists before the law. We deem the able argument of counsel in this case of sufficient interest to warrant publication of the synopsis furnished us.

At a time when criticism and condemnation are rampant, it is well to remember that in so far as they are unauthorized and unjust, they are powerless to resist "the stately march of Truth;" and that antagonism to good and wholesome things is, for the most part, due to well-meaning ignorance. We may also remember that ultra-conservatism has always greeted the innovator with the old cry of Crucify him! and a different reception would reflect little credit upon the significance and value of any new thought which antagonized preconceived opinions.

Do we forget sometimes in Christian Science to be grateful for all the blessings we have received through this wonderful Truth? Do we remember always to thank God for His great mercy and love with which He has loved us, and drawn us to Him? If we neglect to do this, and are not feeling full of joy and gratitude for all He has done, then we are off the line, and are not fit to receive that blessing and help which we should otherwise have been getting. It is never necessary or right to be weary or downhearted in Christian Science, and we certainly ought never to be sad.

God leads, and if we follow God, not halting to consider self, we must do well. Of this I am sure,—that I have a niche to fill that no one else can fill for me, and I am trying hard to fill it, not as I will, but as I feel directed by Wisdom.

In all history, sacred or secular, no story can be found so full of pathos,—touching the heights and depths of being,—as the story of a woman's gratitude which we find recorded by three of the Evangelists. (Matthew, 26:6-13; Mark, 14:3-9; John, 12:1-8.

The way in which agitation in legal circles, intended to secure decisions against Christian Scientists, is resulting in decisions in their favor, suggests an interesting retrospect. We find that the leaven of Christian Science has permeated the other modes of human consciousness, and we may wonder why the medical thought was first stirred, then the theological, and finally the legal.

A Lecture on the above subject was delivered on Monday, June 5, in Queen's Hall, Langham Place, London. The Earl of Dunmore, who presided, introduced the lecturer, who spoke as follows:— Since coming to your shores I have been the recipient of many kinds of welcome, for which I am grateful, because they serve to draw closer the loving bonds of kinship, and enable us to realize that neither time nor distance can interpose barriers between those of the same language and lineage, between those who, however separated, can join in claiming the heritage of the same great deeds and the priceless blessing of liberty.

On looking back over the twenty-five years during which I have been a member of the Congregational Church, I can see how I was being made ready to accept Christian Science when it should come to me. Hot-tempered and impulsive, timid and sensitive, yet earnest and conscientious, my whole life has been one of hard struggle with the seemingly warring elements within me.

The Patriarchal theory of Government as found in the Bible and the Patria Potestas of ancient Rome were in many respects identical in terms, and in particular they each emphasized the authority and control of the father or head of the family over the person and property of the "Son under the Power. " The earliest peoples were first found in isolated families, then, as the number of families increased and some were grown more powerful than others, the law of self-preservation brought about a combination of several families, forming a tribe.