Much
is said nowadays by religious writers respecting an alleged decline of spiritual earnestness and activity, and not a few facts, such as the passing of revival movements, the indifference to Sabbath observance, the falling off in church attendance, the free and frequent criticism of creeds and dogmas, etc.
None
will deny that all men should pay their debts, but someone may deny the application of this moral requirement on the ground that he does not owe any one.
Without
meaning the slightest disrespect to any of the other bodies of Christian worshipers by the assertion, we confess we do not think that there is a denomination that can truthfully boast of having a more intelligent, industrious, honest, moral, God-fearing membership than the Christian Scientists.
It
is rather astonishing, as one comes to think of it, that we should find those who, for years, perchance, have been praying and laboring for the overcoming of evil, but who nevertheless cling persistently to the assertion of its necessity in the formation of character and the education of the race.
Since
the publication of the article, "The Integrity of Christian Science Literature," in our issue of August 15, we have been given an opportunity to inspect three papers of the kind referred to.
WITHIN
the past few weeks some daily newspapers have had considerable to say about the new edition of the Church Manual, and through them an effort has been made to convey the impression that radical changes have taken place in the internal economy of the Christian Science denomination.
Will
those beloved students whose growth is taking in the Ten Commandments and scaling the steep ascent of Christ's Sermon on the Mount, accept profound thanks for their swift messages of rejoicing over the Twentieth Century Church Manual?