Editorial January 2, 1909 Issue

RESTITUTION

Annie M. Knott

In the third chapter of Acts we find a very beautiful promise in Peter's words, "the times of restitution of all things;" a promise which is linked to a kindred idea, viz., "when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord." These words were spoken soon after the great Teacher had gone from his earthly labors, and just after Peter and John had healed the lame man at the Beautiful gate of the temple. The Christ had appeared to humanity in the life and works of Mary's son, but divine Truth as thus presented had been "despised and rejected of men." John says, "He came unto his own, and his own received him not." The carnal mind believed that it had succeeded in quenching the light of Spirit—in crushing out the Christ and the Christ-healing, but this cure of the lame man, and Peter's bold defense of the cause of Truth, showed that Truth is deathless and that, whatever the seeming, Truth's idea is destined to appear until the last vestige of belief in evil shall have disappeared.

Not so long ago, many of us believed, when one Christmas day followed another, that Christ had been born only to die, and that in our deepest need the Christ-power was as far from us as if it had never been manifested by Jesus of Nazareth in the overcoming of all forms of sickness, sin, and sorrow. This false belief robbed us of that which should bring joy and gladness not only on Christmas day but every day of the year, and God says, "I hate robbery for burnt offering; and I will direct their work in truth." So "the times of restitution" have come as the apostle declared, and man's divine rights—health and harmony—are ours "to have and to hold" if only we are willing to avail ourselves of them.

Of late years our beloved and revered Leader has done much toward our emancipation from the tyranny of custom at the Christmas season, and thus also toward the "restitution of all things," in bringing to us a clearer and nearer sense of the ever-presence of the Christ and the ceaselessness of the angels' song of peace on earth and good will toward men. In The Christian Science Journal of January, 1906 (p. 646), and that of December, 1907 (p. 568), we have republished articles on the meaning of Christmas which were written by Mrs. Eddy for widely-read periodicals,—articles which give no uncertain sound as to the true significance of this occasion. In the first she says, "An eternal Christmas would make matter an alien save as phenomenon, and matter would reverentially withdraw itself before Mind." She adds, "Christmas, in Christian Science, stands for the real, the absolute and eternal,—the things of Spirit, not matter."

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