Articles

IN CHRISTIAN SCIENCE I'M DELIGHTED TO HAVE a religious practice that steadily nudges me to grow and develop spiritually. A way of thinking and living that increasingly proves to me the truth of its fundamental theology: that because God is absolutely good and has created everyone and everything in His own perfect likeness, evil—however realistic it seems to be—is no part of God's creation nor a reality of anyone's experience.

IS CHRISTIAN SCIENCE SOMETHING THAT CAN BE SPOILED by less than perfect people and the complex pressures of changing times? The truth is that however badly something seems to have sidetracked someone's intuition of good or interfered with the desire to follow Christian Science, neither God nor man, who is the creation of God, have been compromised. They're always there to be found.

THE OTHER DAY, A FRIEND TOLD ME she sometimes finds herself feeling critical of a fellow church member whom she actually admires in many ways. She said these thoughts disturb her, but she has been unable to get rid of them.

Dear friend, the histor[ies] of our hearts were not unlike in major parts, But one in love and agony, Till Love divine made mine most free. I knew thy story ere 'twas told; The way affection gains its gold By furnace fires: the starless night That brings the morrow calm and bright.

In his article in this issue of the Journal (p. 27), Tom Black has brought out the crucial importance Mary Baker Eddy placed on Christian Scientists being alert to and dealing with the aggressive resistance to Truth she called "animal magnetism.

AS A SMALL CHILD, I would often go to a "secret place" in my garden where I could be with God. It was a good place.

A FEW YEARS AGO , I was in a relationship with a man whom I adored. After a few months of dating, we quickly moved in together.

In these pages we've gathered several shorter items–articles of less than a page in length and excerpts from longer manuscripts that offer useful, inspiring insights. We hope you enjoy this kind of short-form nourishment in each issue.

I WAS A FIRST-YEAR COLLEGE STUDENT on a bus traveling from western Massachusetts to Boston, reading a collection of writings by civil rights leader Martin Luther King. As I turned the pages, I slid one of my fingers along an edge and got a paper cut.

POWERFUL WINDS BUFFETED ME as I walked along the boisterous Pacific Ocean. But when I headed toward some steep bluffs, I found the forceful winds much less intense.