["Laicus," in the Queensland Times, Ipswich, Australia]

The amazing profundity of a mother's love has stirred the heart of many great thinkers. They have found therein a profounder analogy to the motherhood of God than in any other way.... It is a beautiful teaching of Christian Science which speaks of God as (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, p. 16) "Our Father-Mother God, all-harmonious." For we have in the eternal Spirit all the characteristics of a mother as well as a father. In the words of Isaiah, that Old Testament prophet, who saw deep into the heart of God because of his spiritually developed faculties, "As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you," we have a grand conception of the mother-hearted nature of God.

[Bishop James E. Freeman, D. D., in the Michigan Christian Advocate, Detroit]

Dr. Robert Millikan, a distinguished scientist and Nobel prize winner, in a recent interview, said some memorable things about America and what he regards as its major contribution to world order. He said: "The contribution which America can make and is actually making in the field of religion, is even greater than the contribution it has made or probably ever can make in the field of government. Because of the freedom of religion in this country, the Christian churches have had the opportunity, already partly realized, to demonstrate to the world how the religious life of a nation can develop simply and rationally, completely divorced from the sort of superstition and unwholesome emotionalism that have been the bane of most religions in the past." He affirms that he sees no decay of religion here, and that the increasing membership of the Christian churches gives confirmation to this conclusion.

Such a statement, coming from the lips of one of the world's greatest scientists, is most significant, especially so at a time when the high claims of religion are being challenged in certain places.

Over nineteen centuries have come and gone since the Christian church began in obscurity and in a remote corner of the world. It has passed through many stages and met with every kind of opposition. It has witnessed vast changes in human institutions and seen the amazing results of scientific research and the new ways of living that have followed in the wake of new inventions. It has seen great and stable governments rise and fall and strange systems come to replace them. It has heard not one but many of the great apostates say that religion would not live out another half century of time.

This situation has repeatedly been followed by reformations that have issued in the changed habits of nations and peoples. Shallow students of the trends of our own time have voiced the conviction that, presently, we shall see the gradual decay, if not the abolition of religion and its devotional practices. There is nothing new or modern in this, nor indeed is there anything original in such declarations. The Christian religion is not subject to the changing practices of government or the capricious whims of society.

New interpretations and new adaptations of the Christian religion are common to succeeding generations. The ways of the church are not static, the truth it teaches is unchanging. Time was when this truth was restricted to narrow areas and quite unrelated to the practical concerns of life. In this the church failed to meet the demands of its Master or to rightly interpret his teachings.

To him there were no restricted areas to which his teachings did not apply. His finest exponents have realized this, and today the social implications of the gospel are universally urged, and the leaders, clergy, and laity alike are bringing them to bear upon life's most pressing and practical concerns. The Christian religion no longer finds expression within cloistered walls; it finds its field of service in market place, drawing room, and in the forums of political debate and discussion. Quite apart from all this, it is the individual in his deepest needs that the Christian truth must serve.

[C. Josephine Creighton, in the Independent, Corona, California]

Were you ever discontented with your life and its surroundings? You thought a change was what you needed, but when the change was made you were still troubled and discontented. Though you searched and looked through one means or another, no contentment could be found. Even money and fame failed to bring happiness. If this has been your lot, I have a word of comfort, a message of cheer, for you: "But godliness with contentment is great gain."

God offers contentment, which is one of life's greatest blessings to all who will let God lead and direct their lives.

No, my friend, if you are discontented, a change of surroundings is not what you need; it is a change of heart.

[Rev. Harry O. Kisner, as quoted in the Courier-Journal, Louisville, Kentucky]

When we remember the parable of the loving father, usually called the parable of the prodigal son, we see the father's attitude toward his son, his sin, his forgiveness, his reception, and his relationship. He is the kind of father who sympathetically understands and cares. . . . He gives us great opportunities and expects great things of us. In the highest sense God is our Father.

Jesus loved and worshiped a perfectly good God. He was an ideal God. . . . As someone has said, "God cannot be less good than Jesus said we ought to be." Jesus gave us a new idea of goodness and of God.

Jesus worshiped a dependable God. Our God not only created a universe, but He created a dependable universe. It is a law-abiding universe. It can be trusted. Many sincere people have asked: "Is there a reliable God to trust in? Is God dependable?" Christianity answers with great certainty, "Our God will not let you down."

[The Gleaner, in the Dorset Daily Echo, Weymouth, England]

In the church we talk about the brotherhood of man; but is that very convincing to the outside world if we ourselves are divided and jealous and ungenerous towards one another? It is not our inward emotions, but our fruit which matters to man and to God. There are signs of a new realization of this need in the life of the church. There are symptoms of a widespread movement which is drawing together Christians of different races and nationalities. We need to pursue this path, sifting the things which unite from those which separate, affirming by public acts of worship and declarations that the things which unite us are overwhelmingly strong, and bringing more into our individual Christian fellowships the spirit of active helpfulness and understanding.

The Church of Christ should act as leaven in society, transforming it, caring nothing for the credit of the trans formation, yet always inciting men's spirits to new adventures of mutual trustfulness, of co-operation, of sharing, always stirring imagination, quickening sympathy. "Take away our hearts of stone, and give us hearts of flesh," should be the burden of the church's prayer for the society which it represents before God. . . .

The responsibility for good or evil rests ultimately on individuals, and you and I have to ask ourselves whether or not we are bearing fruit. It is a simple enough question, which cannot be evaded. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith. We all know what these things are: the blight which their absence brings; the happiness which their presence means in life; their power to make the rough places smooth, to laugh at circumstance, to transform even a cross into an opportunity.

The degree to which our world recovers from its sickness, which is at bottom a spiritual sickness, depends upon . . . how many people [there are] whose confession of Christ leads them to act, to cross barriers, to forgive and forget, to bestir themselves in the interest of the unfortunate, the unhappy, to point out the true and living way to those foolish ones whose feet have strayed.

[From the Colonist, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada]

It is a plain fact in everyday life that it is in God alone that men and women find rest to their souls. . . . He who is the same, yesterday, today, and forever, is a refuge, not only when the darkness deepens in human hearts, but in all crises that affect mankind. . . . Whoever puts this to the test, who has the spiritual insight to ask the Lord to abide within his heart and to fashion his outlook on human affairs, has something fixed and steadfast as a sure anchor. He has a tranquillity which pervades his reactions to the things temporal.

[From the Nonpareil, Council Bluffs, Iowa]

Jesus told his followers to resist evil with good. It is not an easy thing to do, and none knew it better than Jesus, for he lived in violent times, when force ruled the world, and when might seemed to make right, as it is trying to do today. And he lived among a people who never willingly submitted to despotism. The Jews struggled against Roman domination more persistently than did most of the nations conquered by the Caesars.

They urged Jesus to lead them against their oppressors, and they would have made him their king. He refused. His remedy for the world's evils was to overcome them with good. His cure for war was peace. It is so today.

But how is this remedy to be applied to the present world situation; how is the ideal of Jesus to be achieved? There is no easy or simple way. It is desperately difficult. No one of us is wise enough to see around the next corner.

But surely the Christian churches of the world, representatives and custodians of the teachings of Jesus, ought to make a supreme effort to preserve peace. . . . And every church in every community can and should help start such a movement. The churches must lead in the campaign to overcome evil with good if there is to be any campaign.

[Wallace E. Brown, in the New York Herald-Tribune, New York]

A functioning religion creates spiritual insight, moral robustness, enlarging hope, and an expectancy that keeps one on tiptoe. . . . We have debated our religion too much, we have demonstrated it too little.