Articles

Sometimes, when beset by personal problems that seem obdurate, even the most careful thinker feels tempted to puzzle over the question, Why am I not coping with difficulties as quickly as I used to? Ecclesiastes, the Preacher who valued wisdom, calls this an unwise question: "Say not thou, What is the cause that the former days were better than these?" he admonishes his readers. Then he adds, "For thou dost not enquire wisely concerning this.

How frequently one hears people complain, "If I could only get rid of this condition!" Unfortunately, when we are convinced we have something worrisome, something discordant or unhealthy, to get rid of, we are accepting material sense testimony that we are mortals struggling to overcome something real, present, and powerful. This conviction makes the error much more difficult to eradicate.

People like to see things happen. A day without events seems stagnant.

A young woman said, "I gave up my ten-thousand-a-year job and my apartment and sold off all the furnishings. I thought that in giving up all I had I would be helping others.

Living can be an adventure, fulfilling and rewarding, when we use the spiritual qualities we reflect from God to destroy the illusions of mortal, material thought. Christian Science explains that human experience objectifies the condition of human consciousness.

Somebody once asked a Christian Science practitioner, "What are some good first steps to take in preparation for healing the sick in this Science?" The practitioner answered, "One good step might be to learn to stay well yourself. " Surely it requires endless love and untiring consecration on our part to bless and heal mankind.

Everything humanly worthy, and viewable or mentally evident in daily experience, is but a symbol or reminder of that which truly exists as an eternal idea of God. The idea and the symbol are never identical, and the symbol never merges into the idea.

Jesus' stay in Capernaum, following the wedding celebrations at Cana, was brief. The Jewish Passover was approaching.

Children in whom self-government has been cultivated by their parents usually grow into adults who have this God-given asset in good measure. Others who reach adulthood with their inherent self-discipline still only in latent form often feel incapable of tackling a goal that needs concentrated and consistent effort.

God's command to the prophet Samuel that he go to Bethlehem to find and anoint a successor to Saul met with reluctance. Samuel was sorrowful that Saul, because of his disobedience to God's directions, was to be deposed as king of Israel.