Articles

Women have seldom been absent from the battlefield. Many have worked untiringly on behalf of the sick and wounded.

I still vividly recall the day the Sunday School superintendent of the branch Church of Christ, Scientist, to which I belong asked me to give specific thought to the subject "Prayer for children" and then share my thoughts at the next Sunday School teachers' meeting. Why me of all people? I wondered.

Over the years I've observed that many people whose lives illustrate longevity have a sincere interest in something such as current events, members of their family, friends, or some other activity. One of our friends, at the age of ninety, took up oil painting and was good at it.

Christian Scientists sometimes receive requests for healing through prayer from patients hundreds, even thousands, of miles away. And even when the request is from someone closer, healing may occur without the patient's being physically present with the healer.

Is our surrender to complacency helping to keep the world asleep in materialism? In Science and Health Mrs. Eddy warns, "Lulled by stupefying illusions, the world is asleep in the cradle of infancy, dreaming away the hours.

Either God is All, or there is no God. There isn't any middle ground.

Most of us would agree that the media have a tremendous impact. But we do not have to pay the price of taking in the bad along with the good.

Christian Science shows that prayer is much more than a human activity of trying to reach out to God. Prayer brings to light in human consciousness the underlying truth of God's spiritual creation, man and the universe.

What can we do when we're scared? How can we be brave when we are up against something really frightening, something that seems to threaten our health, our business, our finances, our morals, our children, our relationships, our very sanity? How did David do it, when he went out alone to face the most fearsome warrior in the enemy's ranks? How did Moses keep his nerve at the water's edge, while Pharaoh's horsemen bore down on the Hebrews? How did Daniel have the courage to endure a night in the lions' den? And how could Christ Jesus have had the poise to surrender himself deliberately into the hands of the power establishment that was plotting his death? It couldn't have been mere bravery, or stoicism. There are times when human courage seems far from adequate.

At one time or another, most people have probably felt so troubled by a situation or another person that they've sought some place to escape to. A cat chased by a dog may scurry up a tree.