Just
as in the commercial world, with the ushering in of a new year, men take an account of stock and check up their gains and losses, so we as Christian Scientists, laborers in the vineyard of God, may profitably review the work of the year just closed, count our blessings, and with renewed courage enter upon another "Soul-filled year".
It
is a pleasant thing to remember that in the whole circuit of the sun the new year is ushered in with that kindly greeting which expresses a native, elemental sense of brotherhood, a bit of that spontaneous good will which is indifferent to all the separations that selfishness and social caste have made.
In
thinking upon the approaching close of the year, a hymn which was at one time a favorite with the writer was recalled,—the one by Miss Cary that begins with these lines:—
When
the Samaritans failed to welcome Christ Jesus, "because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem," James and John were so far lacking in understanding of their Master's mission upon earth that they asked him, "Wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did?
Although
mortals have widely differing opinions about many things, all who are above the plane of actual savagery are agreed that certain moral requirements are equally binding upon all men, specifically the provisions of the Decalogue, which safeguard the lives, property, and reputations of mankind.
