[Rev. M. G. Montgomery, in the Oregonian, Portland, Oregon]

Absorbed with the fascination of the quest, so many these days are unmindful of the find. Ever since the Christian faith began humble folk have been witnessing, "I see," "I know," "I find," "I am healed," "I believe." Oh, I know, a lost of questers question the evidence. But the witnesses speak out of life's experience; and who can deny that their lives verify their words, in richness and power. Surely the evidence has weight.

When Lincoln said, "I have heard the prayers of my mother, and they have followed me all my days," it renews our faith in prayer. When one of America's foremost business men testifies that every big business man of integrity in his unusually wide acquaintance has had a praying father, a praying mother, or both, it does impress us with the character-forming power of religion. Will all who can testify to the influence of Godly home, a saintly Sundya school teacher, or a wholesome influence of a Christian church upon their lives, join me in saying "Aye!" Verily we are encompassed about with a great cloud of witnesses.

Each day brings a lot of testimony by witnesses on the stand of the court of the day's experiences. One says, "My life was changed in its direction from evil to good by the redeeming power of God." Another testifies, "I was in trouble and He helped me." Another says, "He gave me a dynamic purpose, taught me the joy of service, and gave me hope." One with social passion witnesses that the only successful way of social living is in integrity, service, faith, and love.... People even enter into the valley of the shadow and witness that He is with them.

Platitudes? Defense mechanism? Infantile religion? Well, the evidence stands, and there is plenty of it if the questers quest in the right way.

[Dr. Hutton, as quoted in the Boston Transcript, Massachusetts]

You are crossing the field of your life when, one day, something falls at your feet. Anything which falls at your feet from the region of truth is meant for you, and, if you are wise, you will pick up that feather and put it into your breast. If you are quick you may see the bird from whose wing the feather fell; but even if you do not, you have got the feather. And when days come when there are no blue skies, no birds with outspread wings shedding feathers, days when you might deceive yourself and say it was all a dream, then take the feather out of your breast and say, "The light that did burn will burn."

[Editorial in the Dansville Advertiser, New York]

The history of the past reveals that often in the progress of mankind conceptions of error have been generally accepted and believed. To a certain extent the same observation probably applies to our beliefs and convictions to-day. The commonly accepted notion about many things may be demonstrated as incorrect and erroneous as the generations and centuries pass. However, we may take comfort in the thought that at this time the human race, especially in the more intelligent countires, suffers less from superstition and ignorant fancies than ever before in its history.

In its own mysterious way truth establishes itself. Regardless of the artificial support often given error, the sifting process continues to reject and renounce false beliefs and ideas. This process, which results in the establishment of truth, can be arbitrarily interfered with whenever the process of thinking on the part of individuals is replaced by a blind and unquestioned acceptance of the opinions and judgment of others traditionally and popularly supposed to be the custodians of wisdom. Therein lies the importance of maintaining freedom of speech and encouraging freedom of thinking by every man.

It is no reason to forbid a man to talk because he utters thoughts which are contrary to our own, For, if he is speaking truthfully and interpreting correctly the experiences of which he speaks, there is no way to prevent the ultimate acceptance of the new idea. The progress of the future is inevitably linked with freedom of thought and freedom of speech. Oppose vigorously any effort to curtail or circumscribe the right of man to formulate his own thoughts and to express them freely.

[Editorial in the Voice of Orthodoxy, Grand Rapids, Michigan]

On one of the highest peaks of the Swiss Alps astronomers have been setting up instruments in preparation for studying the sun's rays. "Why climb difficult and dangerous heights to carry on such studies—cannot the sun be seen down on the plan?" Yes, in a degree; but not so clearly as up on the heights—in pure air unobscured by mist and cloud and uncontaminated by ... dust and smoke.

Which thing is a parable. How many of the finest and most splendid things of life are obscured, distorted, or utterly blotted out, hidden down on the lower levels of our human world! Business, fashion, and pleasure, the blindness of money madness, the dust, noise, and clamor of the market place, the selfishness and strife of ambition, the coarsening effect of the flesh, all these so obscure, distort, and hide the things of the spirit that often these cannot be seen clearly until we climb above them to the heights of meditation, prayer, and worship, from which we can see the face of God. Climb the mount of transfiguration if you would effectively serve on the plain.

[Rev. Ernest C. Bayliss, in the Western Morning News and Mercury, Plymouth, England]

Straightness. Perhaps we think of the words as slang in these days. But it is the real equivalent of righteousness. There are some words connected with religion which need retranslation sometimes. We know ... that if we leave a piece of metal [iron] lying in a north and south line it tends to become magnetized.... So it is with words that have been for a long time used only in certain ways. We need every now and then to take them away from their association, to demagnetize them, to see what they really mean.

The righteous man is not the same as the religious man. Righteousness in the Old Testament is held to mean not what a man professes to believe, nor even what he does believe; but it means what a man is and what he does. The religious man is not always the straight man; he ought to be, but, unfortunately, there are crooked religious men.

What, then, is the straight man? He is the man on whom you can depend. You can trust his word. He tells a thing as it happened. He repeats a message as it was given. He reports a conversation as it really took place. You can depend on his acts. The work he promises to do will be done to the best of his power. It will be finished punctually, according to promise. His look, his attitude, his speech, all tell you that he is straight. He is righteous in the real meaning of the word. He can be depended on to treat others fairly, to take no mean advantage. If you buy from him, he delivers what you bought and nothing else.

Righteousness, straightness, must be cultivated. It does not come of itself. It has to grow into habit. How is this to be? First, be straight with yourself. When you do anything, face your real motive for doing it. When you refuse to do something, ask yourself why you refused, and face the real reason. It will not always be the reason you would like to give to other people; but it is known to God; confess it to yourself.

Confess your wrongdoing to God and to yourself, to Him fully. If necessary confess it to your neighbor, without excuse or gloss. Be straight.

Then, care more for truth in word and act than for anything else. Guard a promise as a sacred thing, especially a promise made to yourself. God knows that you made it, even if no man knows it. All promises are known to Him....

Nothing helps righteousness, straightness, so much as to remember His presence, who loves us, and whose strength is always at our call.

Straightness. It is, perhaps, the greatest need of these times. Perhaps there never was a time when expediency, what will pay, was more evident as motive in our affairs both public and private. The times are difficult, but straightness will do more to steady them than anything else will. And straightness with one's self is the first great need.

And the strongest help to that is the constant remembrance of the Presence in which we live.

[From the Kansas City Free Mason, Missouri]

We do not care whether you call it Christian Science or any other name.

The thing we like about the Christian Science people is not their "church-anity," but the abundance of what we really believe is God's truth—the supremacy of the spirit.

We sincerely believe that these good people are precisely right when they tell us that the God-life, the happy and harmonious life, is the most healthful and decidedly the most successful life....

We are not talking about churches, but we are talking about the mightiest spirit on earth—the sincere Christian spirit. While these good people are to be genuinely and perfectly commended for the great works they are doing, they may have gone on so far in advance of anything we have ever experienced that they may see and do some few things that I could not say or do, sincerely, but they say and do so many good things that I will just attribute my own failure to command everything that they do and say, on the grounds that I believe they see and do so many good things that any failure on my part to say what they say is probably attributable to my ignorance and darkness.

I am aspiring to be just as good as nearly all of the Christian Science people I have known.

[Dr. Robert Norwood, as quoted in the New York Times, New York]

There is a path which the vulture, the lion, and the whelp of the lion in our nature will never find, but which the song bird, the child in us, gentleness, and simplicity will locate.