Articles

Before Jesus healed the helpless man at the pool of Bethesda, he asked him the simple, forthright question, "Wilt thou be made whole?" John 5:6; From the point of view of Christian Science there are several implied meanings in this brief query. It might be restated in several ways: Are you willing to accept the simple truths of divine Science in contradiction of tradition and treasured beliefs and opinions? Are you willing to accept the fact that God, the divine Mind, made man in His own likeness and governs him as surely as He does the universe? That there is no birth nor death for man because man made in His likeness is therefore spiritual, eternal? That God saw every detail of what He had made, and it was very good? That if it is not good, God did not make it, and consequently it does not exist at all in reality but only appears to illusory mortal mind to be real, although it remains an illusion? The invalid answered Jesus, "Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me.

I once heard a music student discussing an assignment to write a musical composition and orchestrate it. A Christian Scientist, he said that he "just removed himself and sat back and let God do all the work.

The status of divine creation is perfection. God's work is done.

With consummate artistry the contralto sang the moving spiritual, "Lit'l Boy, How Ole Are You?" This refrain receives the repeated response, "Sir, I'm only twelve years old. " The dialogue refers of course to the experience of the child Jesus in the temple at Jerusalem.

A young man went into the full-time practice of Christian Science healing. One day when he answered a new patient's knock at the door, she took a surprised look at him and asked, "Is your father in?" The young practitioner smiled and replied, "Yes, my Father is in, but I'm the practitioner!" That young practitioner realized that God, his Father, was the healer.

When I was at school, several years before I became a Christian Scientist, a pugnacious boy decided to make me his victim by regularly trying to start a fistfight. His aggressiveness persisted for several weeks.

The discovery by Mary Baker Eddy that Christianity is Science began a revolution in human thought as yet unrecognized by a vast majority of serious thinkers. But the momentum of this revolution is deeply felt by the individual who grasps the spiritual significance of the discovery.

"Giving up something one likes. " This was the gist of the response of a group of young people when questioned, "What is self-denial?" Most of them answered by giving an example—referring to an act they would have to perform so as to be forgiven for some misdeed or self-indulgence.

It is our duty to be healthy. Yes, it is just as much our duty to express health as it is to express love.

A child may say she will be "grown up" when she can dress herself. A teen-ager often equates adulthood with owning his or her own car.