It is important to note that there is a great difference between Christianity and Christian Science. We have had Christianity from the beginning. Christian Science is new. Christianity is the Spirit of Christ. Christian Science is the understanding of that Spirit, the understanding of the law by which Christ wrought his wonderful works. The practice of Christianity is universally obligatory. The acquisition and teaching, and analytical completeness of the detail of Christian Science is optional; and frequently it is neither possible nor obligatory. Science implies considerable intellectual development and taste, and improved opportunity for study, while Christianity is compatible with very inferior mental power and culture and taste.
We enter a family and heal a sick one, and perhaps charge nothing (or we may charge); and not even say a word of our deed, and do it all silently, and all in love. That is Christianity. It is the Spirit and action of Christ. We are bound by the law of Christianity to do good as we have opportunity. But to teach the science of Christianity, that is a very different affair. Science calls for systematic labor, and the laborer is worthy of his hire. It always implies cost and sacrifice on the part of the student; and whoever is not willing or able to meet the demand cannot have the article. All these must be counted out of the elect sons or daughters of science. They cannot promote science, and science cannot promote them.
