Through a hospital window comes a ray of sunshine. A little leaflet lying in the light on the counterpane, says: "There is no Truth in sin, sickness or death, for they are not in God, and God is our Father. From Him we inherit - the divine heredity! wholeness, health, strength, wisdom, courage, love." Oh, glad tidings of great joy! Angels (true thoughts) bear the invalid up in their hands (power) and once more is heard: "He is not here,

he is risen."

An unloved wife, an unloved husband, tugging rebelliously against the chains riveted by vows uttered with lips rather than hearts, hear, "Whom God hath joined together, let no man put asunder," and they strenuously declare: "He surely did not join us." Yes, He did, dear ones. He has joined His children together indissolubly and harmoniously. In that perfect union that eternal union of Wisdom and Love, the concord that is harmony's self- you have freedom, freedom. Listen no longer to the lie claiming that God has not joined you together. They hear; they rise in the new-born sense of harmony, freedom, love; see and greet each other as children of one Father, whose glory they unite to show forth forever; and again the angelpresence softly says: "He is not here, he is risen."

Days and nights of vain regret and remorse, because of the hasty temper that wantonly and irreparably wounds the heart of a loved one, follow each other. It is so hopeless, so dark, we cry out, "What is repentance? Can it avail?" When the deepest depth is reached; when sense and sin have done their worst, there comes again the song the angels are ever singing: "Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth, good will to men.” Hear, O son and daughter of man; the Truth is come "that taketh away the sins of the world." Repentance does avail. Hear and obey. The children of God, who is Light, "have fellowship one with another." Sing! ye heavenly choirs; sing, "He is not here, he is risen."

Listen! oh world of suffering, sin, pain and loss; the sons of God are revealed. Rise early in the morning, prepare spices; then go to the sepulchre in which you have laid fondest beliefs of hope, of life, of health, of peace, and before which a stone is rolled to keep them in, and to keep out the teaching of the Messiah. Go early to the tomb, and you will find the stone rolled away; and the reality which your hope foreshadowed, "sitting at the head," and saying, "He is not here, he is risen."

"The Lord hath made the hearing ear, and the seeing eye." It is the ear and eye of Light that is the Life of men; that Light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world." Then listen, O world with the ear that the Lord hath made the hearing ear-to this Word of God, eternal in the heavens and on the earth: "We are the children of the King of kings, and Lord of lords; children of the Most High; sons of the living God, the one Father, omnipotent, omnipresent Principle,- Life, Truth, Love." Then no longer will you sit by the grave of your good, forsaken and grief-stricken; for the angels of Light, of whiteness, of purity, smilingly say to you: "Look up. He is not here, he is risen."

RIGHTEOUSNESS.

JESUS said, "except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven." He also said, "Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven." We must fulfil all righteousness (the righteousness of the commandments) before we can become a law unto ourselves through love, the fulfilling of all law.

Every human way or method that looks toward honest dealing with our fellow men, and is in the line of justice to all ourselves as well as others must be our way or method as followers of Jesus. "We cannot exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees until we first equal it."

It is simple, honest dealing with our fellow-men to render a statement of our account in business, and give a receipt for money received. It is honest and impersonal to live and dress in a manner not to attract curious attention either to our plainness or fashionableness, our asceticism or luxuriousness. It is honest and pure to avoid the appearance of evil. No matter how pure our thought may be; no matter how much we may feel fitted to go counter to the customs of the day that look only to outward purity and virtue because we think we have caught the inner spirit of Jesus' chastity — we are not following his example if we do not observe the human outward evidence of chastity as he did. Christian Science (Jesus' teaching) is not a license to offend the feeblest effort of mortal man to approach purity and honesty of inward thought through purity and honesty of outward action.

One speaking with authority, said once, "Christian Science should at least make moralists." To be moral is to be exemplary (an example) in all things, before all people; young and old, foolish and wise, ignorant and cultured, sinful and pure, unchaste and chaste. Action is the fruit of thought, the outward and visible fruit by which we are known. Right thought "avoids the appearance of evil"; it will never "cause our brother to offend"; it will never bring just censure upon the cause of Christ; it will never lead us into any course where we need to be selfjustified or self-defended. Omnipotent Truth defends every action which is the result of right thought, right knowledge of God-righteousness.

The world's motive, spirit, is ever to be rejected. It is the opposite of the righteousness of the kingdom of heaven. Honesty, chastity, kindness, for policy's sake, is the way of the world. Honesty for honesty's sake, chastity for chastity's sake, kindness for its Christ-likeness, is the way of the kingdom of heaven; but the outward action is the same in both cases. It is the change of motive that makes us first like the human Jesus,— "the evil disappearing"; and thence leads us on through the Jesus-likeness to the Christ-likeness,- "spiritual salvation."

WHO IS THE "LITTLE CHILD"?

"AND a little child shall lead them." As we see and hear these words so often quoted, a little study of the passage and its context may be of service. The first nine verses of the eleventh chapter of Isaiah contain a prophecy of what was to come to the "seed of Abraham."

The "seed of Abraham" included not the children of his loins alone but those who, through his faith and through demonstration, should discern and accept the "Most High God" Principle. All discerners of the one Lord -the " King of kings," who have obeyed, or been governed by that discernment, from Isaac to the present generation, are "children of Abraham." Jesus, the "shoot out of the stock of Jesse," the fulfilment of the first part of the prophecy, and the complete demonstration of Abraham's faith, was the example which, if followed, would bring to the senses the fulfilment of the wonderful and prophetic picture which begins with the sixth verse.

Paul read the same prophecy in the light of Jesus as the beginning of its fulfilment; "For the earnest expectation of the crea

tion waiteth for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but by reason of him who subjected it, in hope; because the creation itself also shall be delivered from bondage to corruption, into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain with us until now."

The Gospel nineteen hundred years ago, Christian Science today, is the "revealing of the sons of God." If mortal man will will to see the "sons of God" behind the mask of sense, and no longer" judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears," the whole creation will be delivered from the bondage of corruption." No longer will animal war against animal, no longer will nature be at war with itself. The little child of Spirit will have dominion over, "lead," the ideas of Spirit; for the ideas of the Perfect Mind are never at war with each other, and to Man the Son of God was given "dominion over every living thing." This dominion is the fearlessness that comes from understanding of the kingdom of God.

The little child "conceived in sin and brought forth in iniquity," unregenerate, is not the child that shall lead the beasts of malice, vice, and carnage; but he who has been conceived of understanding and brought forth in purity, though still a babe in the ways of righteousness, shall subdue, lead captive, overcome, render powerless every lust (beast) of the flesh, every belief of matter (whether wolf, leopard, bear, asp, or lion) that "walketh about seeking whom he may devour," and the flower of innocence, usefulness, obedience, law and love will be found to be the "liberty of the glory of the children of God."

Whenever we become as the "little child" whom Jesus "sat in the midst of them," whose angel (exalted thought, not emotional self-mesmerism) forever beholds the face of the Fatherwhether to mortal sense we be five or fifty years of age the "earnest expectation of the creation" is then being met in God's own way. His way is: Truth of Being, destroying falsity of being. That the universe, including man, is "spiritual and not material," is the Truth of Being; that the universe, including man, is material and not spiritual, is the falsity of being. If material, it must be discordant in all relations, from man to ether, from a blade of grass to a solar system,- all things being at enmity, destructiveness instead of harmonious fitness, death instead of Life, holding sway.

"And a little child shall lead them," is a promise to each one of us; a reward awaiting as soon as, through us, as revealed sons of God, "the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea."

OCCASIONALLY, as space permits, the JOURNAL will present brief selections from leading periodicals and prominent authors, not as Scientific statement per se, but as indicators of the general trend of thought in its responsive onward march. To save all misconception, pertinent introductory will accompany items thus presented, where their drift is not clearly self-evident. In conscious perusal of such, it is both comforting and essential to know that the Power equal to nine-tenths of an error, is unquestionably equal to the other one-tenth. In this light, even "high attenuation" loses its terrors of fancied power. The following is clipped from a late Illinois daily.

The Rev. H. O. Rowlands preached a timely and pertinent discourse on "Leaving and Cleaving," at the LaSalle Avenue Baptist Church last night. The text selected was: For this cause a man shall leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife. Mark x. 7. "Spiritual truths are applicable to actual human experience," he said. "When, therefore, at the beginning of the new year we leave the old past we must adopt some means to carry us forward through the coming twelvemonth. There are always those who look back on bygone days and call them better. It is the better part to leave it and cleave to the future. God is good, the future is good, and a living dog is better than a dead lion, a living future than a dead past. Old ideas become supplanted. The anthropomorphic conception of God, the six winged angels, the literal hell of fire and sulphur, the heaven built like a beautiful city- these are matters in which the people are losing faith. But there is a real God of love and spirit, of mercy and justice; there are real angels, our mothers and wives and the providences of God; there is real hell, in the drunkard's home and the ill-health of the dissolute. Man's maladjustment to his environment is hotter and more intense than anything of which Dante dreamed; there is a real heaven of inexpressible joy, light, and love—our adjustment to God. It is well to leave the old ideas and cleave to the new, but not merely for the sake of leaving them but because something is gained that is better, truer, higher. It is well at this time to 'swear off,' as the saying is, though the New Year is frequently spent in making resolutions so numerous that it takes the other 364 days to break all, but it is good only when we leave the things which are bad and cleave to something better for nobility and strength." In conclusion a valuable lesson was drawn by Mr. Rowlands that but one resolution was ever necessary, and that was a vow to live as one ought. "And that," he urged, "can never be done by merely trying to leave a life of sin but by giving yourself and your actions to God.”

In the initial number of its springtime New Year, the JOURNAL appropriately greets its readers in new and seasonable Easter garb. The attempt perceptibly to freshen its "page-appearance," has been allied to care to retain early and pronounced characteristics sufficient to insure spontaneous recognition on the part of life-long friends. What degree of success has been demonstrated by the union, readers themselves can most impartially determine. The JOURNAL should practice what it preaches. In place of a "worn" look, it should carry a smile of conscious cheer wherever it goes.