Articles

It is now forty years since the Discoverer of Christian Science made known to the world the basic law of Christian healing: forty years in which the world has laughed, then looked, then come to listen. Clashes of learned minds, bitter legislative enactments, personal vituperation have all had their day, but the great work goes on.

In the life and character of Christ Jesus as understood in Christian Science we have a perfect example of complete identification with good. In his teachings we have an explanation of the way this identification was made by him and must be made by us.

[We are glad to publish the following splendid tribute to woman, to her place and achievements in Christian history, and to our Leader's fitness, by virtue of being a woman, as well as by her spiritual attainments, for the great work she has been called upon to do. The value of woman's work and influence is steadily gaining recognition, and it is time that her true place in the realm of moral and spiritual thought should be clearly understood and defined.

The great evil which besets human existence is fear, and too often is mortal man heard to say, in the language of Job "The thing which I greatly feared is come upon me" The child of earth is bound by his fears and knows no way of escape. He never loses sight of the one great fear—the fear of death—which casts a shadow over his whole mortal existence, and, consciously or unconsciously, he is influenced thereby in all that he does.

Christian Science is as a search-light turned upon individual qualities, motives, and practices. It reveals clearly to all who "having eyes, see," that, broadly speaking, there are two bases of endeavor among men, the spiritual and the material.

Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.

It has been among the writer's duties to read aloud daily to an audience consisting of busy women, and there has arisen at times a kind of apologetic feeling when the Scripture portion has included the story of Martha and Mary. The superficial thought that Martha was reproved for industry, and Mary commended for inactivity, has no doubt been accompanied by a touch of fear lest a thoughtful listener should ask why she need give so much time to material labor, if Martha was rebuked for it.

Behind our every experience, back of all we hear and see, lie meanings deeper than are indicated on the surface, as we know; and under the impetus which has come with the light of Christian Science, the thoughts of mortals are being directed, more than ever before, to the reading of these hidden yet ever-open texts. As it is with living beings and their ways, so is it.

Christian Scientists accept the teachings of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy, because they give the true, demonstrable understanding, of God, and therefore present to mankind the only practicable way out of the discord into which their misconceptions of the Supreme Being and of His creation have engulfed them.

The reason for replying-in detail to objections advanced against the Christian Science movement must be the wish to correct what appear to be certain errors inadvertently admitted into the premises and accepted as the basis of these arguments. Certainly, if the claim of Christian Scientists be true,—that this Science is destined to fulfil the letter, as well as the spirit, of the teaching inculcated by Jesus of Nazareth,—it must be conceded to be the most "stupendous business" that can engage our attention.