Among
the things which no intelligent person would question, is the fact of a serious lapse of present professional Christianity from the standard of simplicity and spiritual power reached and maintained in the early Christian church, and that this lapse is causally related to much of the poverty, wretchedness, and degradation which is no less heart-burdening to all who love their fellow men than discreditable to so-called Christian civilization.
At
this season we find on every side reminders of the resurrection, and these may well lead us to inquire whether we have simply gone around a circle since last year, or whether our honest scrutiny can discover that we have really risen with Christ.
It
is generally conceded that the Mosaic Decalogue contains the vital elements of moral law, and that its provisions underlie all civil and criminal codes.
He
was looking into the heart of a March sunset whose radiant glories were latticed by a group of leafless trees after a fashion that would have delighted the eye of an artist.
One
dominant phase of Christian Science which greatly impresses the inquirer who comes to its study with an open mind, is its insistent demand upon its followers for righteous living; or, to put the same idea into different words, its demand for applied righteousness in the lives of its followers.
One
not infrequently meets with those who say that they would really like to understand Christian Science, but have found it quite beyond them, and who thus explain their indifference to it, though they acknowledge their need of help.
In
both the Old and the New Testament we find many calls to awake to the truth of being, a beautiful passage in Isaiah bidding those "that dwell in dust" to "awake and sing.
There
are doubtless many of our readers who will recall that previous to 1895 the services in Christian Science churches included sermons composed and preached by the pastors of these churches.