we nevertheless plead guilty to it, and we cite our great Law Book the Bible, as a whole, in support of it, without singling out any particular portions. We prefer the lunacy of a whole God, to that of a partial one; that of one whose power is unlimited, to a limited one; that of one whose wisdom is complete, to one whose wisdom is circumscribed; that of one whose presence is always with us, to one who is here to-day and gone to-morrow. Therefore we enter our plea of guilty to this charge.

SEVENTH: We are charged with lunacy, in that we believe the Scriptures in whole instead of only in part. Included in this belief are all the teachings of Jesus and the apostles as to the healing of the sick, healing the sinner, and raising the dead. We believe all of his teachings were directed to and intended for the benefit of all mankind, not merely to and for part of mankind. In support of this, we cite the whole of our Law Book known as the New Testament, and wish to have entered our plea of guilty to this charge.

We understand there are many other minor charges made against us; but as these cover substantially all of our essential beliefs, we think in pleading guilty to them we should be found guilty without further delay, and judgment that we be incarcerated in a lunatic asylum pronounced and entered on record. We much prefer to be kept hereafter in the asylum of Truth, than to be running at large in the charnel-house of error; and we ask that our confinement commence at once. We prefer this, because we prefer to live in a "house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." We know that this asylum is located in that sacred city which lieth four square. We know that the builder and maker of this city is God: and it is "a city which hath foundations." We know that it is beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, for it is Mount Zion-the new Jerusalem, fair, royal and square. Yes, we prefer the lunacy of Life to the lunacy of death; the lunacy of Love to the lunacy of hate; the lunacy of Truth to the lunacy of error; the lunacy of health to the lunacy of disease; the lunacy of happiness to the lunacy of misery; and may God speed the day when all humanity shall be consigned to this lunatic asylum.

THE CHURCH OF CHRIST.

MRS. IDA FULLER.

CHURCH of Christ! O House not made with hands;
Nor builded on the smooth and treacherous sands

That ever fail;

But on unchanging Truth's eternal rock,

Where storms of doubt and angry tempests' shock
Can ne'er prevail!

Thou stand'st secure, while earthly temples fall;
And peace and joy are found within thy wall,
Where Love doth reign!

Thy light doth constant shine for mortals' weal,
And will eternal Love for aye reveal

In sweet refrain.

Thy gates are shut to sickness, sin, and death;
For only Purity here entereth,-—

Naught that defiles.

Thy law of Truth and Life can have no end,
And Love is with thee always to defend
From error's wiles.

Thy corner-stone is He who came to save
From sin's repulsive touch, from death's cold wave,
And point the way

To triumph o'er the world, the flesh, all ill,-
Whose Sun of Righteousness our night shall fill
With endless day.

Thy builders,

they who take Him for their guide,

And, setting every mortal weight aside,

Their lives compare;

Who, fitting in its place each loving thought,
And casting every imperfection out,

Fashion with care;

Who heal the sick, the broken-hearted bind,
And in His Truth a remedy can find

Thy creed is Love, that knows no fear or pride,
But ever setteth mortal self aside

To build for thee;

All radiant shine Thy watch-towers in the night,
And in their luminous, reflected light

The blind may see.

And as thy kingdom now on earth has come
To weary mortals seeking their true home,
O may they learn

In love to man to show their love to God;
And, treading in the path their Saviour trod,
To hither turn.

THE MEASURE WE METE.

WHE

F.

HEN from competent judge or jury of our peers, instead of hoped-for approval we receive unlooked

for rebuke, do we realize that the consequent feeling of having suffered injustice has its basis in vanity? This alone is the source of all sense of injustice. In proof, witness our ready excuses, our earnestly presented reasons (?) for ignorance or folly. We forget that ignorance of the law is a plea never admitted a hearing in court, but feel sure we should have been spared some of the pain. The bitter pill should somehow have been sugar-coated; that is, the chiding should have been given in some other way, at some other time, or to some other person quite as much to blame as we, - better still, to some other altogether, leaving our own sins of omission or commission wholly ignored. What a deceitful thing is the human heart! What wonder that Jesus, with his divine understanding of Soul, would neither trust his own nor any other!

In further proof of this deceitfulness, when we do for a time personally escape reproof while our brother is receiving reprimand, instead of stopping at gratification over our own temporary escape, we get "heads together" in unhallowed criticism of the one being scourged; or silently look in superior saintliness, and shake our wisdom (?) crowned heads

in amazement at such display of the sinfulness of sin and foolishness of folly, as if ourselves sin-and-folly-proof! as if ourselves already entered upon the way of holiness in which we shall not err"!

Do we realize that Christian Science is sin's rebuke, and nothing else? Its whole work is to uncover to each individual, the sinfulness, foolishness, worthlessness of his own heart not the heart of another. Only by seeing our own carnal heart as it is, can we know the heart of mortal man. Jesus knew the heart of man, having been "tempted in all points"; that is, having found in his human heart every thing that is in the heart of each one of us. Only his understanding of the Truth of Being could have revealed to him the human heart as the exact opposite of the divine heart of the Son of God.

Does not the understanding of the Truth of Being, the same Christian Science which Jesus taught, to-day uncover to us our own worthlessness, to make us humble, compassionate, patient? Does it not teach us how to overcome, Jesus-like, the temptations of the heart of mortal man? If ourselves not diligently overcoming, at what moment may not the adversary set a snare for our feet, and cause us to fall beyond redemption, in this age or in the age to come? May not our whisperings and "I-told-you-sos," our unholy gloatings over another's reprimand, merited or unmerited, be a snare in which our own feet are so entangled that we already are staggering to our fall ? "What measure ye mete it shall be

measured to you again."

How many of us have fallen so far that we have had to begin our weary way "out of sense into Soul" all over again, just because of our malicious, pharisaical gloating over the discomfiture of some one to whom the rightful Judge had given a timely reproof?— not stopping to think that we thus were helping to thrust the stumbling one into outer darkness, instead of letting the loving word of warning help him to walk with firmer step in the narrow way. Surely the blood of such an one will be required of us.

To become a Christian Scientist is to become an imitator

of Jesus of Nazareth; to be governed by the same motives, from first to last. He earned the authority to rebuke, by first overcoming in his own heart the thing to be rebuked in another.

May we not justly suppose that Mary rebuked, cherished, trained in divine wisdom, this son the supreme demonstration of her recognition of the Fatherhood of God? Was he not once publicly rebuked, and taken back to his mother's house; until, by obedience and demonstration in the “ few things," he attained to such understanding of Principle, the Father, that he finally became "in his own person the rebuke of sin"? How compassionate he became because of the discipline he so bravely bore to all who were striving to learn the way of him! Are we following his example? "And if thy brother sin against thee, go, show him his fault between thee and him alone; if he hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.”

was

The sweet, loving privacy of rebuke by the holy Mother never violated; hence, he was enabled to teach those who through demonstration were to speak with authority after him, to observe the same tender method in their dealings with all that believed on him through their word. If for any reason another was admitted to the sacred council called to show a disciple his fault, is there any record of that high trust ever having been betrayed? Is there anything to lead us to conclude that Jesus, or the disciples, felt that Peter's fatuous denial of his Lord brought added persecutions to the divine martyr or to his followers? Although Peter was warned against his self-confidence, how gentle the rebuke, and how truly mighty the forgiven Peter became in consequence! In him were the Master's teachings truly glorified!

Are we imitating Jesus when, with heads together like "gossips at a quilting," we bemoan our sufferings through another's folly; or allow our self-righteousness to glory that we are not as he is? Had we not better diligently search in our own heart for the same, possibly greater folly; and when found, as it surely may be, destroy it with Truth— establish,