The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1917-01-12

ray.
"Try to cling to some comforting
verse from Scripture" urged his
practitioner, cor try to sing some up
lifting hymn as you go about your
work" 4
The man left, promising to follow
this advice as far as possible. Inc
next day he returned, sank listless-
ly into a chair and said: "It's no use.
| can find no help. tried to sing, as
you suggested, but found no COM
fort"
"What did you sing?" asked the
other.
zone of our old religious songs" he
replied. "The first line reads: 'Hark
from the tombs doleful sound!
A lifetime of study of the words
and works of Jesus had developed no
more hopeful or helpful inspiration
than, "Hark! from the tombs dole
full sound"
Christianity Is Exact Science.
Mrs. Eddy discovered that the, reli-
gion taught by Jesus is as exact a
science as is the science of numbers;
that a Christian should be enabled to
overcome sickness, fear, discourage
ment, poverty, or any other discord,
with the same readiness and certain
ty of correct result that he takes to
his problem in mathematics. Thus she
has defined Christian Science "as the
law of God, the law of good, inter-
preting and demonstrating the divine
Principle and rule of universal har-
monyp fundamental Divine Science,
page -. And the application of this
rule to the problems of everyday life
Immediately becomes the privilege
and duty of the consistent follower of
Jesus.
The Mission of the Saviour.
A story is told of shipwrecked
sailor who was cast upon far-off
isle inhabited by semisavage tribes.
One day he came upon a group OF
wrangling natives, and inquiring the
cause of the commotion, learned that
there was a certain supply of cocoa
nuts brought to the island to be
equally distributed among these men,
and no one could decide as to the num-
Der that each should have. The sail
or counted the cocoanuts. He found
one hundred. He counted the men.
There were twenty-five Of them.
Without hesitation, he said, each
will have four as his share" Imagine
his surprise when the natives straight
way flung themselves at his feet, call
ed him god, and proceeded to wor-
ship himl Try as he might, he could
not pursuade the simple folk that his
instantaneous calculation was the re-
suit of an understanding of the prin-
ciple of mathematics and was in no
sense miraculous.
To the bewildered and heart-sick
children of men came Saviour. I'm
Outstanding the great Principle Of be-
ing, he solved their problems, bring
ing instantaneous answers in health
and reformation and regeneration
He plainly said that of himself he
did not the works, and that if they
would but understand his mission and
his Principle, they too could solve the
problems as did he. But they called
him a wonder-worker, worshiped his
personality, and crucified him! Mrs
Eddy writes of the worlds misunder-
standing thus:
"Not the spear nor the material
cross wrung from his faithful lips the
plaintive cry, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabach-
THANH? "(My God, my God, why hast
thou forsaken me?') 1t was the pos
sible loss of something more impor.
tant than human life which moved
him,-the possible Misrepresentation OF
the sublimest influence of his career
(Science and Health, page SOY.
And the human mind has continued
its misapprehension down through
the centuries, with the result that we
still see thousands processing Chris
tianity and worshiping the personali-
ty of Jesus, but following him in
practical demonstration of divine
power-not at all!
The Sign of Christian.
Do you know that Jesus once point
ed out very simple method OF dis
covering a true Christian? The di-
rections are to be found in the six
teenth chapter of Mark, and follow
Immediately the well-known command
to preach the gospel to- every Gre
ature." His words are:
"And these signs shall follow them
that believe; In my name shall they
cast out devils; they shall speak with
new tongues; they shall take up SER
penis; and if they drink any deadly
thing, it shall not hurt them; they
shall lay hands on the sick, and they
shall recover"
Christians, are we measuring up to
this standard? Suppose we are trav-
cling in distant land, and would
be convert says to us, "Are you a
Christian" And upon receiving an
affirmative reply, suppose he next
says: "Oh, how glad ] am that you
came! / see by your Bible that signs
are to follow true believers. Now
am possessed by veritable devil.
am victim of the opium habit. Do,
i beg of you, through your beautiful
religion, cast this devil out" What
would we say? Would we recommend
well-known sanitarium famed for its
treatment of the drug habit. or what
would we do? Suppose he then says:
"My old mother is very i'll. / see by
your book that a Christian, under
standing the great power taught by
Jesus, can cause her to recover.
Come, ! pray you, and heal her."