In
its highest sense, service stands for willing obedience and reverence, a yielding up of self to divine Principle, with love as the controlling factor.
It
is said that in the ancient dramatic poem of Job occur the first recorded intimations of immortality—of man's awareness that life continues after the physical experience called death.
What
a wide and beautiful meaning we find in the word "obedience" when we understand it in the light of Christian Science! It includes, according to the authority of the dictionary, the elements of hearing, listening, and comprehending; also, willing submission.
Within
God's shadow there is peace eternal,Though, dreamlike, noises of the world go on:For where He is, there must be joy supernal,Which never passes to oblivion.
It has been pointed out that if Christian Science were really what its critics would have us believe, then Christians would have no more to do with it than our critical friends.
A recent editorial in The Record made kindly reference to the beneficent influence of Christian Science on the lives of many people, in giving serenity of mind and in improving health and increasing prosperity, further stating that Christian Scientists are good citizens and ideal neighbors.
Christian Scientists do not ignore the claims of disease, but immediately handle such claims in the same manner that Jesus and his disciples did, namely, by destroying them through the spiritual understanding of the allness of God.
It is folly to condemn that which we do not comprehend, and such condemnation merits the rebukes that have previously appeared in letters printed in these columns.
Under the subhead, "Cracks Christian Science," your paper reports a revivalist's attack not on Christian Science, but on his entirely mistaken concept of a religion that is indeed bringing Christ in healing to hundreds of thousands of sick and suffering mortals.
In your paper a preacher of your city is quoted as saying that he could not see how Christian Scientists could call themselves Christians, as they placed Mrs.
In a recent issue of your paper, under the caption "Christian Science," a contributor begins by declaring, "I am a firm believer in Christian Science," and concludes by saying that Christian Scientists should unite with the Episcopalians because the last named have, in their teaching, all there is in Christian Science "plus many more advantages necessary for a perfect and complete enjoyment of the Christian religion.
In
warning the inhabitants of Ephesus to avoid instability and the dangers of being blown from their course and tossed about by the winds of false opinion to the confusion of all who should give ear, Paul, in an effort to promote spiritual unity, likened the Church—the head of which is Christ—to the human body with its various members "fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth.
When I began to read "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, I was not looking for healing for myself, but before the first reading of that wonderful book was finished, I found myself free from physical difficulties which had troubled me for years.
Some years ago, after a life spent in seeking happiness by material means, I found myself a physical wreck, notwithstanding long and faithful search for health.
At the age of eight years I had inflammatory rheumatism, which left me with bones, tendons, and organs out of place, and also great physical suffering, which made attending school regularly impossible.
With much gratitude I have turned again and again to the promise in Ezekiel: "I will overturn, overturn, overturn, it: and it shall be no more, until he come whose right it is; and I will give it him.
Available articles from members of The Mother Church and good testimonies from those healed by Christian Science are always welcomed for consideration by the Editors.
As a subscriber, you can download any Sentinel issue published within the last 90 days (PDF, eBook, and audio). You can also take a look inside each issue as it originally appeared in print, starting with the very first issue from 1898.