Editorials

It is well known that in Christian Science churches, and among their members in general, there is no attempt to persuade anyone to become a Christian Scientist; and the reason for this is plain when it is understood that Christian Science is in fact Science, no less than religion. One does not persuade a beginner in mathematics to accept the multiplication table.

To be aware of spiritual things is not necessarily to be identified with them. Something more is demanded of us than that.

For what are mortals expected to be grateful? Certainly not for the belief that they, with no desire or volition of their own, have been placed in a situation from which they need to be saved. It would not be reasonable to expect anyone to rejoice because of the belief that he is mortal, and that he is subject to the sin, sickness, suffering, limitation, and fear that seem to accompany a mortal sense of existence.

Since man's purpose is to represent God, his role is not passive, it is active; it is not insignificant, it is of the first importance; it is not circumscribed, it is boundless in vision and accomplishment. In defining man, Mary Baker Eddy writes of him.

In mechanics, chemistry, and various other fields of human endeavor, it is taken for granted when results are not satisfactory that something is wrong that can be righted, and that when the correction is made, the desired results will be obtained. Christian Science shows that the same is true of all unsatisfactory conditions.

Mary Baker Eddy says on page 412 of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures": "Mentally and silently plead the case scientifically for Truth. You may vary the arguments to meet the peculiar or general symptoms of the case you treat, but be thoroughly persuaded in your own mind concerning the truth which you think or speak, and you will be the victor.

In his vision on Patmos, John saw that in absolute reality there is no time; and he set forth this fact in the Apocalypse, in the declaration of the "mighty angel" that "there should be time no longer. " In the revelation of Truth to Mary Baker Eddy, the beloved Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, the nothingness of time was no less plain.

Paul , in writing to the Ephesians, did not minimize the spiritual equipment, the alertness, the wisdom, and the courage that would be needed for those who, having withstood evil, continue to stand with God. Not isolated and occasional is the call to men and to nations to stand with Principle.

Sometimes students of Christian Science are perturbed when it is said that there is back of every material thing a right idea, or a spiritual fact. Yet Mary Baker Eddy says this quite plainly on page 585 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," where she defines Elias, in part, as "Christian Science, with which can be discerned the spiritual fact of whatever the material senses behold.

As men come to understand spiritual law and its ever-present availability, they will unquestioningly seek no other than the will of God in the directing of their lives. The tendency of mortal man to consider, primarily, not whether he is doing that which is pleasing to God, but rather whether he is pleasing himself or others, sometimes through desire or fear, is seen to be the source of moral weakness, the reason for the absence of heroic, single-hearted action.