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The Good Gift of Opportunity
"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning," we read in the epistle of James. One of these good gifts is the possession of the present moment, hour, and day in which to work out our salvation, to be saved from any mistake or belief of sickness, sin, or sorrow. It is never too soon, never too late, nor have we transgressed God's law too often, to be allowed another opportunity for reformation. God's compassion is infinite, and He continually offers us the present in which to experience relief from whatever evil may seem to have been giving us trouble.
What a lightening of the eyes, what a gladdening of the heart there would be, if every one who is distressed should know of this great gift, which is immediately and continually available to each one of us! Christ Jesus in his wisdom and love would not have commanded his followers to heal the sick, reform the sinner, love their neighbor, raise the dead, and rejoice in doing so, if it had not been possible to obey him. There is nothing vague about these commands either. He did not say to heal the sick if the disease had not progressed too far; to save the sinner if he were not too degraded; to love our neighbor if he were not too unlovable; to raise the dead if he were not departed too long; or to rejoice if we had not too much to be unhappy about. It makes no difference what the symptoms or evidences are, the fact remains that God's man, God's universe, is perfect; and what we need to do, in order to see this perfection, is individually to understand and prove the nothingness of the belief that anything is wrong with any of God's creation. In the final analysis there is no other creation to consider, since "all things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made."
It is not the other person's malpractice, not our neighbor's wrong attitude, not any material thing or circumstance that we have to change, but our own wrong thought about these things. This fact greatly simplifies our healing work, because we do not in reality have to change matter. The only thing necessary is for each one quietly to correct in his own thinking whatever is unlike good. Moreover, if all were doing this faithfully, all would experience universal heaven and harmony now.
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May 3, 1924 issue
View Issue-
Welfare of Children
GENEVIEVE THOMAS WHEELER
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The Gift of Repentance
MAUDE WESTON BRIDGES
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The Motherhood of God
ROBERT HARVEY TEEPLE
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The Good Gift of Opportunity
ENID L. COLLINS
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Simplicity of Speech
OLIVE JENNINGS ORBISON
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Physical Sense Testimony False
HARVEY B. MYER
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Recompense
CLARA H. HEARN
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Will you allow me space to make a few explanations...
Miss Florence B. Russell, Committee on Publication for Hampshire, England,
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In an article appearing in your paper of February 12...
Augustus Long, Committee on Publication for the State of Nevada,
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A critic would evidently have us believe that the healing...
Charles E. Heitman, Committee on Publication for the State of New York,
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The phenomenal success of Christian Science and the...
Joseph Axtell, Committee on Publication for the County of Somerset, England,
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Christian Science, or the Science of Christianity, is the...
S. Britton R. Foster, Committee on Publication for the Province of Ontario, Canada,
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Letters from the Field
with contributions from Charles H. Glidden, Katherine S. A. Junghanns, Inez Koch
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"God ... no respecter of persons"
Albert F. Gilmore
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Right Resistance
Ella W. Hoag
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"Come unto me, ... and I will give you rest"
Duncan Sinclair
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Correspondence
Nettle R. Shuler
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It is thirteen years since Christian Science found me in...
Arthur Jocelyn
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Christian Science has been truly a great blessing in my...
Arnold I. Rumsey
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I want to express my deep gratitude that I have had...
Patricia G. Myers
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I am grateful for the opportunity of expressing my...
T. Lavicie Drinkard
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Since I have been studying Christian Science every phase...
Maude Tompkins Mathay
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I consider it my duty to express my deepest gratitude for...
Julie Luise Fischer with contributions from Christian Fischer
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The joy and companionship I find in the study of the...
Grace H. Ames
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The statement, "Old things are passed away; behold, all...
Violet Webster Dunham
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I wish to express my gratitude for the many blessings...
Josephine C with contributions from M. Simon
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Signs of the Times
with contributions from Harwell G. Davis, A. L. Murray, P. A. Gilmore, R. N. Kremer, L. E. Tranter