[Editorial in the Standard, Anaconda Montana]

Senator Moses of New Hampshire has the reputation of being a clear-headed, long-headed, practical politician of the old school. His gray matter has never been charged with any red or yellow tinges. In debate he is a quick reasoner, a hard hitter, often a brilliant word slinger. Such a man does not easily lose his mental poise, his sense of perspective, or his sharp sagacity in sizing up men and things. The testimony of Senator Moses regarding the character and intellectuality of Mary Baker Eddy is, therefore, important and impressive. The senator is not a Christian Scientist himself—he is a Congregationalist. But he tells Willis J. Abbot, Contributing Editor of The Christian Science Monitor, that his intimate acquaintance with Mrs. Eddy extended over several years while they were both residents of Concord, New Hampshire, and that while she did not convert him to her religious views, she impressed him as a woman of extraordinary mentality, entirely capable of writing Science and Health without assistance from any philospher or rhetorician.

To-day, after the lapse of more than two decades, Senator Moses declares his high appreciation of Mrs. Eddy's intellectual honesty, her religious sincerity, and her remarkable capacity for dealing with the affairs of the world—the business that brought her into contact with lawyers, bankers, and publishers. This first-hand testimony, coming from a public man free from any possible religious bias in their favor, is highly prized by the Christian Scientists.

[F. C. Hoggarth, in the Christian Leader, Boston, Massachusetts]

There is far more guidance in life than we commonly recognize, for we are often blinded by false expectations. Divine leading is often a different thing from what people expect. The guidance is often expected to flash out in some unmistakable and almost blinding way, whereas it may be there by the wayside, a glowworm sort of light. It is often indirect rather than direct—given not from without but discovered within. Guidance, like the revelation of which it is part, makes demands on us, calling for our cooperation and interpretation. The phrase, "I will guide thee with mine eye," suggests such cooperation. There is fine delicacy . . . in such guidance. It presupposes in the one to be guided a watchful eye, an enlightened mind, a ready and obedient will. We are even warned against being like horse and mule, which need bit and bridle.

We are not to expect the divine leading to be as obvious as the pull on the reins. Normally it is more subtle than the pull needed to turn the mule! On occasion, however, the leading may have something imperious about it. . . . R. L. Stevenson tells of an interesting and all-decisive change in his character. After innumerable skirmishes to keep himself at work on certain lines, there came a change which "turned him from one whose business was to shrik into one whose business it was to strive and persevere." He was not conscious of any struggle, or of registering any vow. Seemingly he had nothing to do with the matter. "It came about like a well-handled ship. There stood at the wheel that unknown Steersman, whom we call God." There seems something of that element in all great conversions. In the case of Paul on the Damascus road, Augustine in the garden, St. Francis by the wayside chapel, how much is the work of that Steersman! Grace at times comes strongly and imperiously to man's aid.

Our circumstances may be a mysterious part of the guidance. When in our perplexity we say our way is hid from the Lord, we may be quite wide of the truth. For by ways that we know not are we led. . . . What wonder and wealth of guidance in the wisdom of great books, and not least in the Book of books! Concerning one such book, that of Proverbs, one who has had a life full of responsibility and perplexity has stated that never in any hour of need has he come to that book without finding guidance and help. Guidance makes demands on our spiritual discernment. Nor do men come to such insight except by way of discipline and of obedience. The end of prayer and of meditation should be to quicken our insight and help us to interpret more accurately the manifold guidance of God. One mark of the prophet has been this ability to sense the way. . . . Men who thus know the way are a supreme need of every age, and not least of our age. In retrospect, to those with quickened and experienced eyes, it is the wonder of the guidance that stands out—often so indirect, yet so real. Somehow in the changes and chances, in the accidents and coincidences, of life, there is seen a thread of gold. Impossible to analyze or explain, that is the impression on surveying the whole. When least aware of it, there was a guiding hand, and though the course has been winding, deflected like a river by things beyond our control, yet how good it has been, and what cause for gratitude and wonder. From retrospect we may exact confidence. "So long thy power hath led, sure it still will lead."

[Editorial in the New Outlook, Toronto, Ontario, Canada]

Sometimes, what men call mistakes are not mistakes at all. When Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, we may be sure there were those who told him that he had made a bad blunder; when Elijah threw down the gauntlet to the wicked Jezebel, no doubt some of his friends were certain that he had made the mistake of his life; when Christ [Jesus] made his whip of knotted cords and used it in the temple, possibly even his disciples wondered if he had not gone too far. When any good man has dared at any time in the world's history to antagonize evil, whether in church or state, he has been sure to be called a fool; and yet such foolish deeds are the very foundation of moral progress.

We wonder whether we are not too apt to excuse our failures by blaming them on other people. When the young people are antagonized, we older ones are prone to be absolutely sure that it is all the fault of unwise and hot-headed youth; yet, after all, youth may be right and age may be wrong. When the crowd goes one way and we the other, we cannot always be sure that we are absolutely right and the majority is wrong; perhaps the trouble lies very much nearer home. It is well for men and women, in youth and age, to weigh well the paths which they take. The possibility of error dogs the footsteps of humanity every step of the way and sometimes when we are surest that we are in the right, it is simply because we are repeating the mistake which we have made a thousand times before.

We may have done a thing for forty years, and yet it may be wrong; and the fact that we have been members of the church all the while does not destroy this possibility. The fact that others like-minded with us approve of our course does not insure that we are right, any more than the majority in Sodom proved that Sodom was good. To the very end of our days we have need to bring all our actions into comparison with the standard set by Christ our Lord, and to the very last day we shall have need to watch lest we sin against greater light by continuing the practices which were begun when the light was very much dimmer.

[Rev. Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick, as quoted in the New York Times, New York]

One feels as one must often feel, the kinship between religion and beauty. Sometimes I think that in all my endeavors to make religion real what I am trying to say is, "Live beautifully. Put first things first. Let the great reverences stand at the center of life. Never let the jostling crowd of things pull and haul you until you yourself become a mob." Real religion is the beauty of a life organized around great devotions.

[Dr. H. Samuel Fritsch, as quoted in the Plain Dealer, Cleveland, Ohio]

The modern mind is bewildered about everything, especially religion. The Christian pilgrim hears so many conflicting voices about the way of religion that he is in danger of becoming absolutely lost in an endless maze of speculation and an entangling wilderness of theorizing. But amidst all these confused and confusing voices, there still may be heard the calm and confident affirmation of the New Testament, "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affiction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world."

In this conception of religion there are only two elements, but these two are fundamental—service and character. Character is that lofty determination which keeps personality uncontaminated from the evil of the world, and above the base, the sordid, the bestial, and the ignoble. Service is character in action. Jesus never exacted any creedal test, never demanded observance of any form or ceremony, never insisted on loyalty to any particular theory about religion—service is the one and only test which Jesus places upon his followers.

[Rev. James Reid, M. A., in the British Weekly, London, England]

How wonderful to realize that God is our best Friend; that He really loves us! What would happen if we really believed that? We would lose all fear of life and of the hard things in life. For we would know that He was standing by and He would care for us. We would have a new enjoyment in everything because it was His gift, which He meant us to have. IT is good to be the guest in a beautiful house, but much better to be the friend of the owner; good to enjoy a fine book, but much better to be the friend of him who wrote it.

Think how a real interest in something good brings joy and zest—a fine ambition. But what if we are called to help God work out His big purpose for the world and for men and women, to put some love into it, to follow Christ [Jesus] in his great work? Would not that bring a real deep joy into life? It is really selfishness and want of interest in others' lives that make people unhappy in themselves and with one another.

[Prof. Harry A. Overstreet, as quoted in the Traveler, Boston, Massachusetts]

We should have what I like to call the adventurous mind, a mind that is out exploring for the truth; a mind that pushes through to find the truth, that wants all the facts, that is generous and willing to give up all prejudices, fixations, prepossessions, even convictions, in order to recognize the true situation.