Independent Christian Science articles

“Lest We Forget”

From the Christian Science Sentinel, September 18, 1909, by

The belief that life and intelligence are material, moving in limited personal orbits, and that, therefore, men can live and act independently of God, is the supreme folly of mortals. Controlled by this belief, the devotion of thought to God is mainly looked upon as a matter of choice or desire, rather than as the necessity of living. Life goes on the same, say they, whether they think much or little, rightly or wrongly, of God, for does not the sun of being shine on the evil as well as on the good? But the suffering and the mortality which accompany the belief of life in matter are its own condemnation, and confirm the Scriptural teaching upon which Christian Science is based, namely, that Life is God, and that apart from Him and His manifestation there is nothing,—no life, no truth, no intelligence, no reality.

We read in Deuteronomy that Moses, after declaring to the Israelites the commandments of God, as revealed to his understanding, went on to say: “And these words which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.”

What does this mean but that God, whom Jesus declared to be “good,” must be held in constant remembrance, must dominate the thoughts and affections, must be with us wherever we go, in all we see or do, must be the burden of our conversation and the object of our desire; and that this truth of the infinitude of good must guard the entrance to our consciousness? If there is any less absolute devotion of thought to God, any less complete surrender of the human to the divine whereby mankind can be saved from evil, the Scripture does not reveal it, neither has human invention or desire discovered it.

An inspired writer has aptly described hell as the condition of those who “forget God.” In Scripture this word forget is frequently used to imply neglect, rather than the mere absence of recollection, for although the fact that God exists may be faithfully borne in mind, it is evident that He is forgotten, to the degree that His requirements are not fulfilled. It is practical rather than intellectual remembrance that constitutes vital Christianity. One’s religious creed may affirm the infinite nature of God, and may correctly declare the divine attributes, yet the actual practice of that creed fall woefully short. But it is the constant living of one’s convictions, the constant reliance upon and demonstration of good, that Truth demands, and for which no amount of creedal belief or religious fervor can be substituted.

But, it may be asked, wherein do Christians forget God, since Christendom is literally dotted with churches erected for divine worship? The Christian religion may indeed be said to occupy the largest share of the attention of the civilized world, while missionaries are bearing its message to every uncivilized land, but in how many of these churches is God worshiped as infinite Love or omnipotent good? How many theological schools and religious publications teach the absolute supremacy of God? How many religious creeds so acknowledge the omnipotence of God that no other power is admitted to exist? In how many places of worship is the First Commandment enunciated in its entirety, so as to exclude the supposition of any life, intelligence, law, or creation apart from God?

On the contrary, does not the preacher too often turn from the exhaustless theme of God’s omnipotence, to descant upon the belief that an evil power exists, and that it can destroy God’s image and drag His likeness down into iniquity? Does not the missionary too often bear a message of fear as well as of hope to his pagan hearers,—fear of a power that is not God? Do not the beliefs of most religionists regard Deity, not only as the passive spectator of their woes, but even as the dispenser thereof,—teaching, in effect, that the same watchful Love which follows the sparrow in its flight afflicts mankind with their ceaseless miseries?

One cannot seriously question that even Christians need to be reminded of the true nature of God as unchanging Love, as the Life of all, when His name is thus coupled with the sufferings of mankind, when He is regarded as causing or permitting the death-dealing earthquake, the blasting thunderbolt, the ruthless, indiscriminate destruction wrought by wind and wave and fire, and the merciless Juggernaut of disease, striking down young and old, sinner and saint. Is not God’s protecting power pitifully forgotten when everything in material belief is acknowledged to have power to destroy human health and life? Is not incense being offered to “strange gods” as much today as in the days of the early Israelites,—incense to the gods that project pain and decrepitude and death upon humanity? Do not even God’s professed people need to be reminded that the understanding of His omnipotence is the only protection from evil, and that their beliefs leave Him out of the question entirely in the healing of their diseases, every material remedy being preferred before God?

A sweet story is told of a child who had healed a sufferer through what she had learned of Christian Science. In answer to the question as to how she had done it, she replied that he (the patient) had forgotten that God is Love, and she had only reminded him of it. There is more practical Christianity, is there not, in this simple object-lesson taught by a child, than in a lifetime of sermonizing with the ever-present, healing power of Christ left out. Indeed, one might acquire all that has been taught in every school of theology, and yet have less real knowledge of God than had this little one.

This incident illustrates the boundless possibilities open to mankind in the working out of their salvation, for what may not one accomplish who always remembers God with such unmixed faith? Can we conceive the result of all Christians thus remembering that God is Love, and actually living in that remembrance? Coming closer home, have we considered the effect individually of remembering, for even one whole day, that there is absolutely nothing real besides good and its manifestation,—no other law, intelligence, power, presence? Would not consciousness rise to better things, and the sense of evil be destroyed by that much? Could we think or talk evilly of another if thought was occupied wholly with good? If we have tried this faithfully for one day, so far as we understand what God is, we know that it can be done, not only for one day but for all days. Does not our Leader teach that the only way to heaven “is to know no other reality—to have no other consciousness of life—than good, God and His reflection” (Science and Health, p. 242)? and that in urging the claims of Christian Science she asks no impossible thing, although it is not implied that this work can be accomplished without toil and struggle, and, at the present period, without defeats as well as triumphs.

It may be said of Jesus that his mission was to remind mankind of God, and he proved God’s presence and power in his healing works; but, in the encroaching materialism of the age, even the church in large measure lost sight of the mission he bequeathed to it. Today, in Christian Science, the voice of the Christ is again heard, calling to human remembrance the eternal truth about God and man which Jesus taught, and for the demonstration of which he suffered. Christian Science is the message of divine Love, recalling mortals from the darkness and the misery of the belief of life in matter to the recognition of Life as God, and that His children are not created to sin, suffer, or die.

The bearer of this God-revealed message, the revered Founder and Leader of the Christian Science movement, has proved through the healing works of Christian Science that her discovery is indeed the Science of Christianity, the living word of Truth which heals and redeems humanity.

The Healing Mind

From the March 10, 1917 issue of the Christian Science Sentinel by

No subject is of greater moment to humanity than that of mind. What makes up the warp and woof of one’s mental life? What stands sponsor for a man’s opinions, inclinations, or acts? What is the deciding factor in our thinking, or whence do our thoughts come? Is God acknowledged as the supreme and only Mind, and therefore as the only source of right thought, or does that which is not good occupy the throne of intelligence for us and hold us captive to unworthy thoughts?

The apostle Paul differentiates between mental states by dividing them into two classes, namely, carnal-mindedness and spiritual-mindedness, the former including all evil and its effects, and the latter embracing all right consciousness and activity. In Christian Science these contrasting terms stand for mortal mind and divine Mind; and they represent the difference between error and Truth, between what is unreal in human existence and what is real. Each human being is directly involved in making a distinction in these terms, from the fact that knowingly or unknowingly he is accepting one or the other as his mind or consciousness. And what can possibly concern a man more intimately than his choice of a mental abode?

According to the New Testament narratives Jesus healed disease, sin, and death by spiritual means alone, and thus uncovered the mental nature of all error. On page 219 of Science and Health Mrs. Eddy says, “Not muscles, nerves, nor bones, but mortal mind makes the whole body ‘sick, and the whole heart faint;’ whereas divine Mind heals.” Many physicians have departed from the old school of material thinking far enough to admit that to some extent disease may be produced mentally; but to be radically progressive they must push on to the discovery that all disease is mental, and that God, divine Mind, is the only healing agency. This would ultimately bring the medical schools to the point of adopting Christian Science, or the Science of the Mind which was in Christ Jesus,—a desideratum for which humanity has long been waiting.

The carnal or mortal mind is defined by St. Paul as a state of “enmity against God,” and among the evidences of this mind he enumerates hatred, wrath, strife, variance, and other unholy things. The revelator in a figure refers to this sensuous mentality as the home of “every unclean and hateful bird.” Confronted squarely by such a picture, what one of us would not protest against his mental abode being thus classified? Yet an honest self-examination would probably reveal that some of these unclean and hateful birds are making their nests in our own branches and finding shelter and activity in the field of our consciousness.

The importance of this question is such that we cannot too soon set about discovering whence our thoughts come. Are there times when with eyes open we let hatred, variance, or strife bias and darken our thinking, or when discouragement, fear, and doubt are given the reins in our consciousness? If so, we should remember that these and kindred errors make up the carnal mind, which is never at peace with God or with His children. This wrong-mindedness sooner or later pushes its fears to the surface under the name of disease, poverty, crime, suffering, and death; and what possible remedy exists for this false mentality and its effects other than right-mindedness? It should be evident that evil conditions cannot be corrected on a material basis or by appealing to the Beelzebub of mental suggestion, but only by a change of consciousness. Christian Science practice is not, therefore, a process of doctoring the carnal mind, but of getting rid of it altogether.

The opposite nature and effect of mortal mind and divine Mind may be simply illustrated. Take the hypothetical case that one person has wronged another. If the victim turns for relief to mortal mind, he will forthwith begin to think disturbing and destructive thoughts, the promptings of anger, resentment, revenge, and the like, all the while believing that they are his own. Even physicians admit that such vicious mental activity tends to induce bodily disease, sometimes in its worst forms.

Now if the victim turns for relief to divine Mind, if he lets this Mind be his, he will forthwith begin to think divine thoughts, the promptings of forgiveness, mercy, kindness, and brotherly love, and to manifest them in forbearance, tenderness, and compassion. What medical practitioner is ignorant enough to affirm that such qualities of godlike thought induce distress of mind or body? On the contrary, it has been demonstrated in scientific practice that good thoughts habitually cherished exclude the causes of disease, or nullify their effects if they have been admitted.

Mrs. Eddy tells us that “sick humanity … looks for relief in all ways except the right one” (Science and Health, p. 371). Mortals examine the material body, watch its action, regulate its food, and so on, instead of looking into mortal thought for their enemy and putting out what has no business there. It is obvious that trouble of any kind could not occur in human experience unless human thought had first made it possible; nor could suffering result from any circumstance apart from mental action. Therefore the potent remedy in sickness as in other errors is to obey the Scriptural injunction of Isaiah, “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.” In other words, the Scripture implies that if the sufferer will turn from his unrighteous thoughts and let divine Truth govern his thinking, he will be abundantly pardoned; that is, healed.

To quote Mrs. Eddy again, “The divine Mind produces in man health, harmony, and immortality” (Science and Health, p. 380). Admitting that God is the source or Principle of all being, the truth of this statement is self-evident; and that it is humanly possible to have this Mind, is proved by the ability which mankind universally possess to do good instead of evil and to express thoughts of love and peace instead of hatred and strife. The divine Mind is made known in the presence and activity of divine thoughts. It is the consciousness wherein the things of God alone are real; where Love is, but no hate; where peace reigns, but no contention; where Truth is, but nothing that “worketh abomination, or maketh a lie.”

If one is not healed, let him not be despondent because of material conditions, but let him take note of his mental activity, whether it is directed by what he knows of God or by what he believes of evil. There is obviously no profit in going to a practitioner, or in extending treatment over a long period, unless one is willing to forsake what is wrong in his thinking and to find his joy in thinking what is right and good. The carnal mind, that is, the mind which believes in matter and evil, always produces disease, because it has no harmony in itself to make manifest. If we are finding our consciousness in fear, anger, resentment, unforgiveness, self-love, passion, and other things that God does not know; if we let these decide our thinking, how can we expect to find the healing Mind there?

Only by actually having this Mind as ours, by the spontaneous and joyous thinking of divine thoughts, can permanent healing be realized. Disease will then naturally make place for health, for evil can have no place in the consciousness of good. Therefore let us hasten to acquaint ourselves with God as the only Mind, because there is no other way by which we may be at peace.

The Necessity for Individual Work

From the Christian Science Sentinel, March 18, 1911, by

The desire to be good is the first essential to living a good life; but this desire alone does not bring that knowledge of God which overcomes the sense of evil. There must also be the willingness to give effect to desire, the readiness to work one’s way out of error, to be what one desires to be, else the mortal will stagnate at that point, passively submissive to a false concept of being. Jesus preached the gospel of work as well as of faith and prayer, and at no time encouraged the hope that the kingdom of heaven could be won without striving for it. Even at the eleventh hour, according to the parable, the call comes to work. “The works that I do shall he do also,” was Jesus’ message to his followers in all ages.

The Master and his apostles taught the necessity of working out one’s own salvation, but not since the early days of Christianity has this necessity been so urged upon the attention of mankind, nor the way thereof made so plain, as in the advent of Christian Science. Appeals for righteousness have not been wanting, and much good has resulted in restraining the evil impulses of mortals, but the doctrine that sin is pardoned without personal reformation has obscured the demand which divine Principle makes upon each individual to work out his own problem. The ignorance of God that holds mankind in the sense of sin and its effects can be removed only through a knowledge of God; and this knowledge is Science, and Science requires demonstration, and demonstration involves work. One may theoretically believe himself to be a son of God, without manifesting Godlike qualities; but a knowledge of this fact put into practice, and this alone, enables a Christian to follow his Master in deed as well as in doctrine.

Human doctrines and dogmas that tend to remove the responsibility for individual purification are not divinely authorized, in that they do not benefit mankind. It is true in spiritual as in temporal things, that what one would possess without effort on his own part is not prized like the good which he himself strives for. Undeserved blessings are seldom appreciated or retained, because no place has been prepared for them. To transport a sensuous mortal into the spiritual atmosphere and environment of heaven, even if this were possible, would not bring him joy, for only as thought grows spiritual is one ready for this translation. Evil is tormented at the very thought of good, hence the unrighteous could never be at peace in the presence of God. Harmonious conditions are realized as the individual becomes conscious of good, but only as the sense of evil is overcome and put out of thought can this consciousness be reached. All mortals have faith in good, in the sense of intellectual belief, but faith must crystallize into earnest activity, and be the mainspring of Christian service, in order to qualify one for heavenly experiences.

In his story “A Rough Shaking,” George Macdonald writes: “[Men] are willing enough to be made noble; but that is very different from being willing to be noble: that takes trouble. How can any one become noble who desires it so little as not to fight for it?” So, while all mankind desire salvation from the effects of their belief in evil, comparatively few are willing to labor for it to the extent of overcoming this belief itself. They would accept salvation as a gift, if they might, but to struggle moment by moment, day in and day out, to have only that Mind which was in Christ Jesus, requires more than most mortals are willing to do. How, then, can they believe themselves fit for heaven, even if its doors were opened to them? For what do men know of harmony or righteousness or love outside the state of their own consciousness? What can any one know of God beyond the measure that good occupies his thought and activity?

The popular belief that heaven is an unknown locality leaves mankind without a clue to its whereabouts or the mode of reaching it; but the Master’s teaching, that the kingdom of heaven is within one’s own consciousness, reveals that the way thereto lies through right thinking and right living; and this is not accomplished by faith alone, but through overcoming. Heaven is not entered, here or hereafter, except as the Father’s will is done; and the doing of this will, to the human sense, is the destruction of all evil works, the correction of the belief in a power opposed to God. The test of one’s Christianity is not his faith but his work, not what he believes but what he does, not his church standing but his spiritual growth and demonstration; for the only value of a religious belief is the effect it produces. Since the material concept includes all sin and suffering, it is evident that heaven is not to be found in material sense, and can be reached only as human thought is spiritualized. Are Christians willing to begin this spiritual journey, to take up arms against the claims of material sense, to deny whatever would hinder the coming of the kingdom of heaven in their own consciousness? Are we ready to work as well as to pray for the good we desire?

In fulfilling his mission Jesus traversed through and out of the belief of life in matter, and declared that there is no other way by which we can go to the Father than that which he taught. The Christ-way is the way of triumph over the flesh, but the dense materialism that continued through successive ages, permeating every system of religion and medicine, obscured this spiritual way until it was discovered anew in Christian Science. Before this discovery it does not seem to have been clearly recognized, except by the Master and his disciples, that spiritualization of thought is the only door to heaven and immortality; nor was this process made scientifically demonstrable and brought within the mental compass and capacity of mortals until the publication of the Christian Science text-book, “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” by Mrs. Eddy. Through this teaching, humanity is beginning to learn the meaning, purpose, and scope of Christianity, and the possibility of reaching, even here, a higher spiritual sense of life.

Until the desire for good is expressed in the effort to be Godlike, it is not an effective factor in the working out of human salvation. When one becomes willing to do that which God requires of him, at whatever cost, he is where God can reach him with the wisdom and strength necessary for this work; but thought must free itself from the belief in matter to obey the call of Spirit. When the prodigal had sounded the emptiness of the material sense of existence, when he realized that it had nothing good to offer him, he said, “I will arise and go to my father;” and he arose and retraced his way until his father met and welcomed him. Had he remained idly content with believing in his father’s goodness, or longing for the plenty of his house, the prodigal would not have found his way home. What was required of him is required of all mortals; namely, to arise and go to the Father, to put good desires into action in working out of the delusions of a false sense.

The necessity of work as well as of faith is emphasized in Christian Science. In “Pulpit and Press” (p. 10), Mrs. Eddy speaks of “the deadened conscience, paralyzed by inactive faith,” and this conscience must be quickened to a sense of Christ’s demands and of individual responsibility. A thorough study of the letter of Christian Science is requisite, but the student must walk in the way this Science points out if he would prove for himself its blessedness and power and rise above the fears and failures of erroneous belief. The true understanding of Christian Science leads to intelligent activity in the overcoming of both sin and sickness, and unless this activity is present the student has not grasped the vital purpose of this teaching.

Christian Science is operative Christianity, and is preeminently a religion of doing; it ever enjoins upon its students the necessity of being “doers of the word, and not hearers only.” The awakening desire among Christian denominations for a broader practice of Christ’s teachings, as well as a stronger faith, indicates the influence of Christian Science upon the religious thought of the age. Christian Scientists do not lack faith, but, as Mrs. Eddy writes in her “Messages to The Mother Church” (p. 57), “they have Science, understanding, and works as well.” A special mission is theirs at this time, to prove the practical applicability of divine Truth to human needs, and to show in their own lives the saving power of Christian Science demonstrated.

Healing as Practised by Jesus

From the February 1906 issue of the Christian Science Journal by

The thought of Christians in general respecting the use of material remedies in sickness is that they are the only available means for combating disease, and that their use is therefore not out of keeping with Christian conduct. Some have gone so far as to say that materia medica is the legitimate successor of Jesus’ healing method, notwithstanding that material means had already been in use for two thousand years before Jesus appeared, and were doubtless as much sought after and relied upon then as now. Just how they could succeed that which came after, has not been explained. One thing is certain, that Jesus preferred his own system to any other, and healed the worst diseases with better success than materia medica can heal to-day after another period of two thousand years in which to perfect itself. It is but just to assume that the Founder of Christianity was the best judge as to the healing power of his teaching, and whether his followers should practise his own system or another, and an examination of the history of material medicine does not warrant the conclusion that it is the successor of Jesus’ method.

Those who defend the resort to drugs and medical doctors as in keeping with their Christian profession, do so on the belief that the Christ healing which Jesus practised has long since passed out of human reach. In assuming this they beg the whole question, for there is not only no Scriptural reference to such a deprivation, but the facts disprove it. Human reason also is opposed to such an assumption; for if we accept the healing work of Jesus as done in evidence of God’s goodness and power, it naturally follows that similar evidence must always be forthcoming under similar conditions. To say that the age of Christian healing has passed because Christians, as a rule, have ceased to practise it, is as unreasonable as it would be to assume that God’s forgiveness of sin had passed because there are so many sinners who do not avail themselves of it. If through neglect the telephone should fall into disuse, and remain thus for centuries, the conclusion would be erroneous that it therefore had ceased to exist as a possibility. It would be ready at any time to respond to the touch of re-discovery, and the re-utilization of its capabilities. In like manner human reason must dispose of the question of Christian healing. That it has lapsed into disuse for so many centuries is neither an argument for its temporary character nor against its restoration.

The discovery of Christian Science by Mrs. Eddy, and her subsequent establishment of the movement bearing its name, are strong protests against the decadence of Christian healing, and the apathy of the church on this subject. If Christ, Truth, is still present with men, always available as the Saviour from evil, —and this is the insistent plea of Christian Science,—then there can be no logical grounds for the assumption that we cannot expect the healing of the sick as in former days. The facts that have accumulated in support of Christian Science are too numerous and well authenticated to be passed over without careful and just consideration, or to be set aside as coincidences. Christian Science, endorsed as it is by the demonstration of its claims through the healing of disease, is pressing this issue upon Christendom. The world’s religious teachers and leaders are being compelled either to defend the practice of material medicine as in harmony with Christianity or to admit that Jesus’ method of healing the sick is the only one that conforms to his teaching. Christians must acknowledge that the injunction of Jesus regarding healing remains a perpetual command to his followers, or that his remarkable healing work had no relation to his no less remarkable teaching. In either case they are in a dilemma, for in the first instance they condemn themselves if they do not obey, while in the second they forfeit the very foundation of Christian belief. Jesus said, “Believe me for the very works’ sake;” implying plainly the direct relationship between his works and his words. However Christians may view this question, it is certain that the office or position of a Christian has not to-day the same significance or breadth of meaning which Jesus attached to it; nor can it have this compass unless Christianity is seen to meet as much of the world’s need as it did once. The modern acceptation of Christianity includes too much worldliness, too much materialism and not enough spirituality, else there were more concern to learn of Christ Jesus the way to health and holiness, the kingdom of heaven. He said. “I am the way.”

The common tendency evidently has been to regard the Master’s “miracles” as the exhibitions of a wonder-worker, a sort of spectacular performance, instead of the natural and legitimate result of his understanding of Truth as applied to special cases. Such a belief centers Jesus’ healing work in himself as a superhuman personality; although he distinctly disclaimed that the power proceeded from himself, declaring, “I can of mine own self do nothing;” “the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.” His entire teaching substantiates these statements, and further implies that the ability thus to do the will of the Father was not resident in him alone, but pertains to all who conform to God’s requirements. It is plainly the failure to fulfil these conditions which has caused the passing of divine healing out of general Christian practice, not that God has changed His purpose or withdrawn the opportunity from mortals to know Him aright.

The defence of the practice of material medicine as being divinely authorized and sustained, and in keeping with Jesus’ teaching, is manifestly an attempt to excuse Christians from their obedience to Jesus’ command to “heal the sick,”—a command that is positive, definite, and unqualified. One need only examine the attitude of Jesus and that of materia medica regarding the cause of disease and suffering, to discover that no similarity whatever exists between them. In his treatment of sickness Jesus rested his case entirely with God; while materia medica ignores God altogether and rests its case with matter, holding the issue as wholly within material law. To aver that any or all of the various medical and surgical systems are the legitimate successors of Jesus’ spiritual system is to ignore the logical inference of his own words. Such a condition of thought would seek to engulf the spiritualizing truths of Christianity in the densest materialism, from whence no ray of light could lighten the pathway of mortals Spiritward. The particularly sad phase of this question is that so many Christian ministers, whose office it is to guide their people in the way of truth, have espoused the claims of materia medica in opposition to the appeal of Christian Science for the revival of primitive Christian healing. What a pitiful outlook for those unfortunates who have traveled through all the by-ways of material methods, who have spent their all in the search for health, and have found it not, and who are left stranded in despair with nothing to look for but death! What a parody of Jesus’ Christianity to tell them that these material systems are all they can now expect of the Christ-healing to which earth’s burdened mortals were bidden to come for rest!

The belief that the sick in these latter days can have no hope of being healed except what these material systems offer them, is a delusion which Christians, with the memory of their Master’s life, should be ashamed to hold. The way of humanity has not been growing brighter “unto the perfect day” if materia medica is the best balm left to mortals for their trouble and sorrow. This is not progress, but retrogression, when we remember how abundantly Jesus proved, so many hundred years ago, that neither God nor man requires drugs to heal the sick successfully. Materia medica was the popular resort for the diseased then as it is now, yet Jesus healed its “incurables” without drug, operation, or hypnotism. He did this in evidence of what Christianity, the then new religion, could do for afflicted mortals, proving thereby the existence of a higher way than matter by which to reach God. It is true that the generation in which these marvels were performed soon passed away, but is it true that nothing remained to the next generation, and the next on till now, save history, a mere record of what had been? Was there no vital Principle expressed in the truths which Jesus taught that is capable of producing the same results under similar conditions to the very end of time? If this is not so, Christianity was little more than an ephemeral idea, a mere shooting-star across the heavens of human consciousness, giving a passing burst of brightness and then vanishing forever. God pity the future of the race if the voice of the healing Christ is never again to be heard this side of death, stilling the tempests of human want and woe, healing the broken heart, and making whole the diseased.

Human misfortune and misery are here to be overcome as in the time of Jesus; sin and disease are just as rampant; and death, as a dreaded spectre, still stalks among us, gathering in its prey. Surely if mortals ever needed Christianity to redeem them from these conditions they need it to-day. The sufferers throughout the earth to whom materia medica has given no relief, and whom it confesses it cannot save need help as sorely as did the Jews whom Jesus healed in Palestine so many years ago. Why should not the Christ-truth be applied to their needs also? Why not? Has Christianity worn itself out, while materia medica has come down the centuries gathering new strength and helpfulness? Has God ceased to respond to the prayer of faith or have Christians ceased to trust in Him,— which is it? Has Christianity ceased to heal the sick because it is not able or because there is a better way?

These are not superficial or idle questions but are of the deepest concern and import to mankind. All the conditions exist to-day such as Jesus encountered during his ministry. There are the same physical needs, the same sense of separation from God, the same bondage to the material senses, the same love of evil, and also the same ability to understand and receive truth. What then has been lost, what is lacking to-day, the truth of Christianity or the understanding of it? It is an accepted historical fact that the Christians of the early church healed the sick through their religion alone; while the Christians of the present day generally repudiate this sacred duty as having nothing to do with their religion. Has the church another and a better name than that of Jesus Christ whereby to save men from the grasp of disease?

The basic law of mathematics never wears out, its intelligent application brings the same results to-day that it did five or ten thousand years ago. It never gives sign of decay or of making way for substitutes.

What, then of Christianity! What of the teachings of Jesus, who said, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away”! What of his healing, when he said that his followers should do the same works and even greater! What of the world-wide preaching of the gospel in obedience to his command, and the world-wide disobedience to his command to heal the sick as well! What of the excuses, and the unbelief, beside the remembrance of Jesus’ parting words, “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world”! What of all this, with the world so full of woe and heart-ache and misery,— and so full withal of professed followers of the great Way-shower!

How can Christians seriously believe that they have nothing better than materia medica wherewith to minister to the sick and dying while they have such a wonderful heritage as the life of Jesus? When he left his students there was no suggestion of there ever being any other right way than his own of healing either the sick or the sinful. At what point then, or by whose authority did materia medica supplant the Christ-way of doing this work? There should be some definite and reliable data to support the common plea that the time of Christian healing has long since passed. This data should be at least as definite and reliable as that upon which we base our belief in Jesus’ “miracles” and those of his disciples. Bald statements are not conclusive on any subject, much less on one which so vitally concerns the destiny of mankind. But no data have been presented, absolutely nothing, either in Scripture or out of it, to justify such a position. Facts are demanded of Christian Science and are given; why are they not also given by those who deny it and the healing efficacy of Christianity?

Christ Jesus said, “I will not leave you comfortless; “Come unto me. . . . and I will give you rest.” Have these words lost their original meaning for physical sufferers, or are material medicines the only fulfilment which they can expect of these sweet promises? When distress of body, or the persistent fretting and turmoil of worldly worries, so disturbs the sufferer that he cannot rest, which shall he turn to,—the Christ-remedy, or a soporific drug that may perchance be the beginning of a degrading appetite? When the body is burning with fever or racked with pain, is it the best and wisest a Christian can do to turn to materia medica, instead of to the truth of the Christ-presence, although Jesus said, “My peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth”? These were the statements of the great, Godlike man who understood the reality of being better than has any other in all history, and who gave abundant proof that Truth would do all he promised of it. All Christendom is resting its hope of salvation hereafter on his teachings and yet many reject them as having no value or application concerning the sufferings mortals encounter here. The Master himself placed no such limitation on the truth he taught, either as to time, or place, or person; and he who understood best should know best what Truth can do. The only limitations to which he referred pertained to the faith and obedience of his followers.

Jesus alluded, in unmistakable terms, to the coming of even a fuller revelation of Truth than he had given, when mortals should learn plainly of the Father. It is but natural to believe that as his followers progressed towards that more perfect knowledge of God, their ability to do the works of their Master would increase. This growth in spirituality should bring an enlarged understanding of spiritual law and power, and a corresponding departure from materialistic beliefs. It is a proper expectation, which experience does not disappoint, that the better one understands any truth the better one is able to demonstrate it. If, then, we admit that it is true, the same rule applies to Christianity. If disease was healed by Jesus and his disciples through their understanding of the Christ-truth and power, these results should not diminish but increase as Christianity becomes better understood and more widely accepted. That this has not been the case certainly suggests the absence or decrease of the faith and loyalty of Christians, but it gives no ground for the argument that materia medica now fills the office of the Christ-physician. Indeed it is difficult to conceive how any one who is at all conversant with ordinary medical methods can think of them as presenting in any degree the evidence of Christian truth, such as marked the healing work of Jesus; or that materia medica can be in the remotest sense a legitimate substitute for the method employed by Jesus and his disciples. Apart from its use of dangerous and poisonous drugs, of whose good or bad effect in different cases it has no certain knowledge, its appalling record of mistakes and failures should overwhelmingly nullify any claim of its relationship, either in theory or practice, to Jesus’ unfailingly beneficent and successful healing work. Let no earnest Christian be deceived by such a fallacious claim. When God requires a substitute for the Christ-method in healing the sick He will require one also in saving the sinner. Jesus associated both of these as belonging to Christian practice; who since then has had the rightful authority to separate them?

Materia medica gives only “as the world giveth.” Knowing nothing but matter, it has no spiritual knowledge to impart. It has no quality of love or mercy. It has no balm for sorrow, no antidote for hatred, no remedy for worry, no salvation for the profligate, no release from the fear of death. It has no hope, and acknowledges none outside of matter. It has little confidence even in itself, and none whatever in God, Spirit. It has written “danger” all over its practice. Jesus said, “Be not afraid,” while the message of materia medica abounds with the word fear. It surrounds its patients, whom it should lift into the atmosphere of security and peace, with the fear of one thing or another every moment of the day, everywhere they go, everything they do. What a pitiful substitute, if such it claims to be, for Christian faith and trust, or for that healing ministry of Jesus in which there was no danger or fear, failure or mistake. What is there in materia medica, or what has there been throughout all the four thousand years of its existence, that has ever touched even the hem of the Great Physician’s garment?

The teachings of Jesus and the teachings of materia medica should have something in common if they are from the same source and are accomplishing the same work; yet how do they compare with each other? Jesus taught his followers of God’s protecting care, not even a sparrow falling without the Father’s notice; while materia medica teaches that we are constantly liable to all kinds of disease and misfortune. Jesus taught that nothing had power to hurt them who believed on him, not even though they chanced to drink some “deadly thing.” Materia medica denies all such statements. It denies that Christianity is any protection from poisons or from the infractions of the material laws of health. It denies the healing power of Christian faith and prayer, or that God can heal any disease which has been pronounced incurable by physicians. This is surely a strange attitude for that which so many Christians defend as a divinely appointed healing system, supposedly using the remedies that God has provided.

How can materia medica be rightfully occupying the healing office of Christianity, when it makes no difference in the physician’s success whether he be a Christian or an infidel? According to its own theories it is not requisite that its patients or practitioners believe in God or Christ at all; it is not even necessary for them to be honest, or upright, or pure. How, then, is it that Christians of all classes resort to a system so entirely “separate from God,” in the belief that it is the way God has provided for them? How can any Christian minister or layman say of such a system that it so divinely ministers to the needs of men that Christians are no longer required to heal as did their Master? What possible fraternity can this method have with that of Jesus, when they teach exact opposites and lead their believers in contrary directions? One leads towards Life, the other towards death; one towards freedom from the flesh, the other towards slavery to it; one towards hope and joy and health, the other towards fear, despair, disease. In which of these directions does Christianity lead men? Who has ever been made a better Christian because of the medicines he has taken, or the surgical operations he has undergone, or the dieting he has practised? Yet if it be true, as so many people have claimed, that these material means and methods are of God, their use should lead people Godward, and bring out the Godlike qualities which He expressed in man, but which disease as well as sin obscures. If these material agencies are of God and therefore good, surely no harm can come from them; yet where is the physician of any school who will take such a position? Who of those who accept this premise will abide by the conclusion, true and logical though it must be?

Jesus taught through all his ministry that God is the Life of man; materia medica, on the contrary, teaches that life is in matter. Jesus said, “Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink;” materia medica says you must be very careful what you eat or drink, lest life and health be imperiled. Jesus said that those who kept his sayings should not die; materia medica says you must die, — no matter what you do, no matter what you believe, no matter how good a Christian you are. Jesus taught that those who believed on him should heal the sick in his name; materia medica says that one’s belief in Christ has nothing to do with the healing of disease. Which of these testimonies are we as Christians to accept? Which of these contrary teachings is calculated to make the best Christians of us, — hasten our approach to God-likeness?

Christianity is from God. Jesus said, “I came forth from the Father.” Materia medica had its birth in paganism, and was swaddled in superstition and delusion. All through the forty centuries of its career it has ever been true to its parentage, never leaving the line of materialism, never ascending an infinitesimal fraction towards Spirit, God, nor perceiving the first gleam of spiritual law. In all that time it has never discovered one remedy upon which it can absolutely rely in any case; and to-day, with all its long history of experiment, investigation, and practice, it stands helpless in the presence of a long list of diseases for which it confesses it has no cure. Jesus said, “No one who comes to me will I ever turn away;” and again, when referring to his disciples’ faith even as “a grain of mustard seed,” he said, “you will find nothing impossible.” (Twentieth Century New Testament.)

Whatever may have sufficed in the past to prevent Christians from practising the healing power of Christianity, their duty in this respect is no longer an open question. In the presence of what Christian Science is demonstrating in their midst, healing all manner of disease by no other means than the prayer of faith and understanding, the former excuses that these things are not possible or are not required of them, no longer afford a refuge. Christian Science protests against the divorcement of healing and Christianity, which centuries of ignorance and unbelief have tried to execute, and maintains the duty of Christians to observe all Jesus’ commands, to keep the whole law and gospel if they would be whole Christians and be wholly saved.

The success of Christian Science disproves all that has been claimed for materia medica as being in any sense a God-appointed substitute for the Christ-method of our Master. It not only heals the sick successfully without drug or operation or hypnotism, but heals what these material methods have found impossible. It has no poisonous aftereffects to contend with, no aftermath of bad habits, no fatal mistakes from faulty prescriptions or wrong operations. It never frightens or discourages its patients, but surrounds them with the truth of God’s absolute infinitude. It endeavors to lift human thought above the atmosphere of its belief in evil to the sunlit heights of Christian hope and faith, even to the recognition that God, good, is the only Life of man. In all seriousness and aside from prejudice, in the presence of the momentous problem of human salvation, and looking out over the great mass of humanity struggling as it has done for ages with its ceaseless woe and anguish, which of these two systems, judged by their teaching, history, and success, better deserves the name of Christian and of Science? which approaches nearer the Christ-method of Jesus?

Let it be understood that this article is in no sense an arraignment of physicians, most of whom command the highest respect as earnest men and women. They are giving their lives to the sacred endeavor of alleviating human suffering, and that they are mistaken in their beliefs and methods is the misfortune of an education which they would as deeply deplore as do we, did they but know the better way of Christian Science. Christian Science is not fighting the medical profession or any other, but it does plead for that full recognition of Christianity which is presented in the text-book of Christian Science as providing the only way of salvation for mortals from disease and sin and death.

How to Pray in Christian Science

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Learning to pray rightly is the secret of all Christian success. We need to remember that prayer isn’t to change God’s thinking, but to change our thinking. God can’t be anything but Himself. Prayer couldn’t make Him more loving, kind, merciful, and good than He already is, and always has been. Every need is already supplied by the truth of what God is.

The true value of prayer is in its effect upon the one praying. As he turns his face towards God, his thought and character become divinely transformed.

Prayer is the cultivation of the state of thought in which we reverently and gratefully use the good that God has already given us. It’s not begging for something that God might otherwise withhold. The child of God is not a beggar, but an heir, entitled to “all that the Father hath.” The Bible tells us that, “now are we the sons of God.” Then let’s approach God “now,” as “sons,” and not as outcasts or orphans.

The Christian Scientist goes to God in prayer as he would go to an abundant feast where he can partake of all that he needs. The practice of pleading with God is as unreasonable as for a hungry man to sit at a beautifully spread table and beg for food. What we need, is to open our mental eyes, to see as Elisha’s servant did, that we are encircled by God’s protecting power, that we are safe with Him at all times, and that no good thing is ever withheld from us.

The whole subject of prayer is reverently and fully explained by Mrs. Eddy in the first chapter of Science and Health. Anyone who studies it with a sincere desire to know Truth, to draw near to God, can begin the glorious work of demonstrating Christian Science.

Unprofitable Comparisons

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It can be helpful and encouraging to look back and see how far we’ve progressed and how our lives have improved through the practice of Christian Science, but to compare our progress with someone else’s is never wise. Such comparisons usually lead to either a state of self-righteousness, that we’re doing so much better than our brother, or into discouragement, because our brother seems to be doing so much better than we are.

Each of us is responsible for his own work, not that of anyone else. God expects every man to do his duty; that is, to express his full measure of sweetness, purity, love, goodness, and all the other Godlike qualities which make up the man of God’s creating. This is not too much for the divine Creator to expect of His children, and it is not more than we should expect of ourselves. This faithfulness to man’s true nature, makes life blessed and glorious.

To be good should be the highest ambition of all men. To have a less noble desire is to invite evil into our thoughts, and become its servant. Jesus defined this high ambition as seeking the kingdom of God first. If we are diligent and wise in the use of our one talent, we shall not compare ourselves with the man who has two or five, and so contaminate our one unique talent with ingratitude and jealousy; but we will rejoice in our brother’s abundance. Let us not compare our own progress with those beyond us, except to give thanks that their experience is a bright promise of the larger good awaiting us!

To seek good first is to see only good within ourselves, and also within others. It means that we should picture all men as citizens of God’s kingdom, the product of good only, and hold this picture before our mental vision whenever we think or talk of others or of ourselves. This does not cover evil, but uncovers it, revealing its falsity, and finally dissipating it in the knowledge that God’s work is absolutely true and perfect.

There is no lack or limit in the Truth of being. The source of goodness, beauty, and joy is exhaustless, yielding more than the heart of man can conceive. To gain this right apprehension is to lose the sense of jealousy or discouragement because we think others are in advance of us, or the sense of superiority because we think we are in advance of others.

To correctly understand our own individual place in God’s universe — which is possible to us in Christian Science — is to understand the harmonious interrelationship of all the ideas in God’s infinite creation. In this understanding, we each have our own position which another cannot fill, our own work which another cannot do, and our own reward which no other can receive. Realizing this, we can be satisfied to just be ourselves, no matter how modest our position seems or how insignificant our work appears to be, knowing that that position rightly filled, and that work well done, are essential to the perfection and harmony of God’s universe.

Love is the liberator.