Page:The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany.djvu/368

340 conclusion. Jesus attended feasts, but we have no record of his observing appointed fasts.

St. Paul's days for prayer were every day and every hour. He said, “Pray without ceasing.” He classed the usage of special days and seasons for religious observances and precedents as belonging not to the Christian era, but to traditions, old-wives' fables, and endless genealogies.

The enlightenment, the erudition, the progress of religion and medicine in New Hampshire, are in excess of other States, as witness her schools, her churches, and her frown on class legislation. In many of the States in our Union a simple board of health, clad in a little brief authority, has arrogated to itself the prerogative of making laws for the State on the practice of medicine! But this attempt is shorn of some of its shamelessness by the courts immediately annulling such bills and plucking their plumes through constitutional interpretations. Not the tradition of the elders, nor a paltering, timid, or dastardly policy, is pursued by the leaders of our rock-ribbed State.

That the Governor of New Hampshire has suggested to his constituents to recur to a religious observance which virtually belongs to the past, should tend to enhance their confidence in his intention to rule righteously the affairs of state. However, Jesus' example in this, as in all else, suffices for the Christian era. The dark days of our forefathers and their implorations for peace and plenty have passed, and are succeeded by our time of abundance, even the full beneficence of the laws of the universe which man's diligence has utilized. Institutions of learning and progressive religion light their fires in every home.