The Vinita daily chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1902-1913, 1911-03-25

ness into light The Christian Science
text book is exastly what it is called.
a text book. Now a text book to be a
text book must be text book about
something. and the Christian Science
text book is text book about the
only thing that is worth knowing, and
that is knowledge of God the. Truth,
which our Bible teaches us, makes
man free. have met people who have
said, Il have read that book through
from cover to cover. and cannot make
head or tail out of it. 1t looks to me
as though you could begin at the be-
ginning and go through, begin at the
end and go to the beginning. or begin
in the middle and read both ways, and
it would be just the same" SO it
would Truth is Truth. 1t does not
make any difference whether you be-
gin at the left and go to the right. or
begin at the right and go to the left,
or in the middle the text book on
Truth brings you exactly the same
knowledge, no matter in what way you
use it, If you use it intelligently Sup
pose one should come to you and say,
You know | never have studied math-
ematics at all. | never had chance
when l was a boy, and never had time
since | have grown up. So ! went to
the library one day, and got an arith-
metic, an algebra. a geometry. a trig-
onemetry and calculus, and | have
ben at those things for the last six
months. have read those books
through, and l tell you cannot make
head or tail of them. There is moth
ing in them" Suppose a man should
come to you who had never studied
anything but English, and should say
to you, Il was awfully swindled the
other day; I went to a store, saw a
book l liked; it was small, compact,
and | was pleased with the appear
ance of it, and they told me it was
Homer's Iliad. When I took it home
and opened it, there was not an intelli-
gible word in it! | was simply out
so much for nothing" What would
you thing of him? Would you think
he was intelligent? Would you think
he was intellectual? When we come
to the use of the text book on spiritual
things and endeavor to materially
study those spiritual things, we find
ourselves face to face with an impos-
sibility. 1t cannot be done. The wise
men, the Scribes and Pharisees of
Jesus time, the men who examined
into the theology that he taught, went
so far astray from the truth he ex-
pressed, the Master was called on to
say, Il thank Thee, oh Father Lord
of heaven and earth, that thou hast
hid these things from the wise and
prudent, and hast revealed them unto
babes"
When | was school boy my reader
had in 1t the story of a beautiful shield
which hung over road. One day two
Knights approaching the shield from
opposite directions stopped, as was the
custom, to saluate each other before
passing under it. After exchanging
salutations one of the knights remark
ed. What beautiful silver shield ("
The other knight responded, "Surely
it is beautiful, but it is not silver but
golden" The other knight said in
reply NAY, It's silver This started
a controversy which finally led the
knights to endeavor to kill each other.
Setting their lances they ran full tilt
at each other but did no damagel AS
they turned again. to charge, they
found themselves on the opposite side
of the shield from which they had
started and, glancing up, saw that each
had been right in their statement, for
the shield was silver on one side and
gold on the other. They-say they had
been looking at it from the wrong
standpoint to understand the others
views as to whatiit was made OF The
only standpoint from which you can
consider spiritual things, is from
Christ Jesus standpoint. 1t is impos-
sible to conceive of anything in His
teachings other than from the stand.
point of His knowledge of God, and
His knowledge ofiIlife, which is His
lessn as He learned it and as He lived
it, for you and me to learn and live.
II you should read any text book, and
did not take the statements it pro
pounds for the purpose of working out
the examples of problems it states,
YOU would never know whether it were
true or otherwise. There is only one
way to prove text book and its teach.
ings, and that is to take what it teaches
make absolute use of it, see the an.
swer you get from the problem you
have worked and then you are in a
position TO know and determine the