Articles

Early in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, press, pulpit, and layman became conscious of a new factor in religious thought and life, but few expected that before the close of the century they would see a large and flourishing denomination of earnest Christian people grow from what seemed such an intangible beginning; but the growth of Christian Science has been as rapid as its history has been simple, and its achievement as great as its purpose is noble. In the year 1866 a woman born and reared in the religious atmosphere of New England, when seemingly helpless and almost hopeless, turned in her extremity to God and was healed, as thousands throughout all ages have been healed and saved when they have trusted God.

We not unfrequently hear new students of Christian Science express discouragement because some discordant condition does not yield readily to their treatment; but we all need to learn that these problems are the test of our real understanding of Truth, and are as necessary to the attainment of a demonstrable knowledge of Christian Science, as the sums we had to do at school were necessary to a correct and practical knowledge of arithmetic. Through demonstrating the unreality of these conditions we reach a higher understanding of the infinitude of Good, and make just that much progress toward man' s rightful dominion.

It has been said, "No two men come to Christian Science by the same mental journey. " Each man comes to the threshold of his acquaintance with God, through the pathway of his own individuality.

Individual demonstrations are the links which, welded together in human experience by Truth, form a complete chain of convincing evidence. A single demonstration may not be sufficient to carry much weight with a prejudiced antagonist, and even seekers after Truth often find occasion for doubt in the first few apparent results of their efforts; but when a number of such demonstrations are combined, they constitute a testimony which ultimately overcome all opposition.

London. THE Christian Science church building in Bryanston Street having become too small for the rapidly increasing audience, temporary accommodation has been secured in Steinway Hall, Lower Seymour Street, for the Wednesday evening testimony meetings, the first of which was held there on November 12.

A MEMBER of the Board of Lectureship was present at a Wednesday evening meeting in one of the churches of Chicago and spoke at some length upon the conversation at the tomb of Lazarus when Martha remarked to Jesus that had he been there her brother would not have died. He said that her thought seems to have been that, if Jesus' human personality had been there the result would have been very different.

WHEREVER I turn the sacred pages of the Bible, I continually find passages which tell of God's goodness to those who trust in Him. In that wonderful masterpiece, the world's greatest oration, Christ's Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said: "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

I WONDERED sometimes, when I first knew of Science and Health, at what seemed to me to be a strange choice of title, but as I have grown into some understanding of the contents of this marvelous book, I have realized that in this title lies the kernel of the truth of Being, and that it is a concise statement of all that is in the book, and I have come to see that health, and an understanding of true Christian Science are interdependent, and that health, —physical, mental, and spiritual,— is as inevitable a result of Scientific thought as that "if equals be added to equals the result will be equals. " Jesus taught that the knowledge of the truth would make us free, and we understand that any one who grasps the truth in Christian Science, knows this freedom and experiences it in exact proportion to his realization of Truth.

IN their first approaches to the subject of Christian Science, many people find themselves baffled and annoyed, if not at times utterly amazed, by the Christian Scientist's evident familiarity with the terms and attributes of Deity, and his repeated attempts at definition of his idea of God. "Sheer impertinence and wholly unprofitable," they say, "are all such efforts to comprehend by definition the Infinite.

When I began reading Science and Health, I remember how my attention was drawn, constantly, to a statement which said the sick were healed by simply reading this book. That statement printed on the obscure fly leaf, has at last become clear.