Editorials

THE critics of Christian Science have not infrequently spoken of its representatives as assuming, both in their statement and bearing, that it is a privilege and a duty not only to be happy but to be free; as both maintaining for themselves and claiming for all others who are governed by Truth, the inheritance of all good, and the legitimate exemption from those so-called human conditions which stand for limitation and discomfort, including that enforced submersion in the struggle for the supply of temporal wants, which is the lot of the worthy poor. The unique grounds of this indictment, which Christian Scientists neither attempt to palliate nor deny, may well be considered.

" FOR as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead. Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them.

The greatest word in the English language, is not English in its origin, but Hebrew, while its content knows no limitation of language or nationality. From the thundering peaks of Horeb, and the illumined heights of Hermon, Immanuel, God with us, has been spoken to the world, and its meaning for men gathers up the purpose and end of all the exalted incidents and experiences of their history; all its revelation, its struggle for the right, its sacrifice, its overcoming, and its joy.

Those friends, thou hast, and their adoption tried, Grapple them to thy soul with hooks of steel. This master touch of the great bard of human nature will never cease to wake an echo of sympathy in the heart of man.

A Remarkable feature of the progress of the Christian Science denomination is that very few of its members have accepted the distinctive teachings of Christian Science for no better reason than that some relative or friend is a member of the denomination. Comparatively few have called themselves Christian Scientists without having had to overcome a sense of opposition and prejudice that rendered them well-nigh incapable of passing sane judgment upon the facts coming their attention.

The test to which every new idea is subjected by business men as well as by physical scientists, is this,— How does it work? and the answer given is determinative, for this is the final court of appeal. The suggestion, however, that religious theories are amenable to the same practical test, has not been received without protest, and it is only in recent years that the pursuit of a scientific method in the study of the Bible and of religious phenomena has been acceptable to any considerable proportion of Christian believers.

In his talk to the Boy's Brigade of Glasgow, Henry Drummond said "Boys, banish forever from your minds the idea that religion is subtraction. It does not tell us to give things up, but rather gives us something so much better that they give themselves up.

The standpoint from which Christian Science has been most vigorously and persistently assailed is that which denies its efficacy as a system of healing, therefore its position in this regard must find justification through its success. A marked peculiarity of human nature is shown in the fact that criticism has continued despite the testimony of the ever-increasing army of those who affirm that Christian Science has healed them after all other means had failed, that it has done for them what medicine and surgery had failed to do.

OUR escape from the enslavement of material sense is made possible by the fact that Truth leads all the way. though our feet are yet within the territory dominated by error.

LET us be glad and thankful for our holidays! They come to us variously laden with the sentiment of patriotism, gratitude, or devotion. But whatever their special mission, they each and all call a halt upon the world's mad chase for gold, for fame, for fashion, and give tired humanity a moment for rest and reflection.