The world is going to school again. In 1914 it believed itself to be ready for the high school of the higher criticism; in 1919 it finds itself beginning all over again in the primary department, meekly trying to make sure of its three R's. At this hour these three R's spell reparation, restitution, and restoration, and the last of these marks an epoch in world history, the restoration of Israel.

When in 1879 a group of Christian Scientists met to organize a church, they appointed a committee, of which Mrs. Eddy was a member, to draft the Tenets. In those Tenets was the statement that Christian Science "restores the lost Israel: for 'the stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner'" (Manual of The Mother Church, p. 17). From the moment of its discovery Christian Science has been a restorer of the body through the mind, of hope and faith, of longevity, wholesomeness, joy, capacity, life. In restoring, it has also nourished and cherished; in Scriptural language it is that which restoreth the soul, man's spiritual individuality. Christian Science restores spiritual Israel by putting forward the understanding of man in God's image and likeness and so displacing the material concept of man. Everything has its proper place,—business, agriculture, housekeeping, art, copyrights, and patents. When these activities and articles have been misplaced they can all be restored to their proper places. The child which runs away and suffers can be restored to its mother's bosom; the church member who has mistaken the real meaning of Mrs. Eddy's church can be restored to his right mind and his right place.

The stone or rock of ages which has long been rejected by those who seek to build on false foundations is now firmly grounded, immovable, unshakable. Christian Science is not based on the sands of compromise; speculation or duality are foreign to its statement or practice. Unequivocal in its obedience to Spirit, it admits no mixtures. As Mrs. Eddy has stated in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 122): "Good is not educed from its opposite: and Love divine spurned, lessens not the hater's hatred nor the criminal's crime; nor reconciles justice to injustice; nor substitutes the suffering of the Godlike for the suffering due to sin. Neither spiritual bankruptcy nor a religious chancery can win high heaven, or the 'Well done, good and faithful servant, ... enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.'"

When liberty is threatened, men and nations must be willing to take the human steps for its preservation under divine guidance. Even war may not be too great a price to pay for freedom, if afterwards the necessary work of reparation, restitution, and restoration is spiritually conceived and carried out. To-day the whirlwind of the world war has passed over, the earth and the Peace Conference sits to repair the damage. Let those who trust in God repair also the breaches in the walls of Jerusalem. "The Lord is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him." Christian Science repairs broken bodies and broken hearts, broken homes and broken hopes. It knits together the nations which separatist and particularist movements would tear asunder. It binds up the wounds made by jealousy and distrust; it neutralizes the perfidious purpose which underlies the motto Divide et impera, Divide and rule, rule by dividing. Christian Science shows that God governs by uniting His children in the unity of good and that all true government repairs the breaks in the mental walls of Jerusalem, namely, all breaches of the peace, infringements of individual rights, ruptures of friendly relations, and violations of official duty. Christian Science acts as a veritable Nehemiah to close up the gaps made by assault from without or by dissension from within; it repairs the results of neglect, of injury, and quarrels.

From the work of reparation Christian Science proceeds to that of restitution. When the Chaldeans took Jerusalem they carried off everything that had value and destroyed what they could not transport, very much in the same way as the German armies denuded Belgium, northern France, Poland, Rumania, and Russia. Restitution means the returning of stolen goods by those who have taken them. It is therefore altogether right that the Peace Conference should insist not only on reparation of the devastated regions but on restitution of property unlawfully taken in the world war, in so far as this is now possible. Righteous restitution is not retaliation; retaliation based on resentment loses its power in its own nothingness. Evil strikes back at God and thus finds its quietus,—this is the doom of revenge. Christian Science in the metaphysical realm accomplishes a spiritual restitution. It provides for the second coming of the Christ in the words of Peter in his address to the people in Solomon's porch: "And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began."

When that which was broken has been repaired and that which was taken away has been restituted, then comes the time of full restoration, the time of refreshment when the dispersed can be reinstated in their former rights and the misjudged rehabilitated. This is the glorious moment when the hungry are fed from the bounty of illmitable divine Love, the naked are clothed with the garments of righteousness, the fearful have protecting arms thrown about them, and pain and punishment have ceased with the disappearance of their causes, for the willingness to leave all for Christ has brought the dawn of a day which knows no suffering. Faith has become merged in understanding which no longer questions or merely believes, but rests on the stone which has become the head of the corner. Then is brought about the saying found in "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" (p. 152): "The restoration of pure Christianity rests solely on spiritual understanding, spiritual worship, spiritual power."

William D. McCrackan.