Articles

The name Easter is derived from that of the Teutonic goddess Eastre, whose festival was celebrated in the spring. Eggs have long been used as symbols of the renewal of life so wonderfully evident at this time of year in much of the world.

Much is heard today concerning the power of positive thinking. As the phrase is used in common parlance, the power inherent in positive human thinking refers to the comfort afforded by unworried thought and the tendency to bodily health associated with the avoidance of negative concepts.

At Easter time thought turns with reverent gratitude to the contemplation of the greatest triumph the world has seen, when God's witness, Christ Jesus, overcame death and vanquished it in the glory of the resurrection. Easter is also a time of gladness and rejoicing because through the teachings of Christian Science we learn that the resurrection is a state of consciousness all may attain by yielding up material beliefs and by spiritualizing thought and life.

Are we tempted to think of ourselves as clever human beings, efficient organizers, or as especially accomplished in some particular activity? A belief in personal abilities or the belief that man is a source of ability could be likened to one of "the kingdoms of the world" Matt. 4:8; that Satan paraded before the Master, Christ Jesus, during his temptation in the wilderness.

At the significant morning meal on the Galilean seaside, so graphically recorded in the twenty-first chapter of John's Gospel, Christ Jesus three times commanded Peter to feed his flock—his lambs and his sheep. It is possible that Peter had this in mind when he later urged his fellow workers, "Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being ensamples to the flock.

Christ Jesus threw wide the door to the realization of immortality when from the cross he prayed God to forgive all who had taken part in his crucifixion. Indeed his physical resurrection may be looked upon as merely the outward appearance of the mental resurrection that was expressed in his forgiveness.

One of the most noteworthy passages in the Bible is the first verse of the eleventh chapter of Hebrews. There the author of this remarkable Epistle writes: "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Probably the subject of healing enters into the experience of nearly everyone today. Healing based upon matter has occupied people's thought for centuries without conclusive or lasting results.

Would you be willing to do without food, a comfortable place to live, suitable clothes, money and what it will buy? These things seem necessary to a happy human existence and certainly it's not wrong for us to have them. But there is something even more fundamental that is needed.

A new student of Christian Science attended a Wednesday evening testimony meeting. She was struggling with a severe chest cold, and after several disturbing seizures of sneezing and coughing during the service, she gasped in a whisper to a woman sitting next to her, "Perhaps I shouldn't have come to church tonight.