Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? I Samuel i. 12.
The great spiritual dearth in popular religion, combined with the ever-increasing amount and variety of disease and suffering in the land, call forth unmistakably the Prophet's lament, as in olden time,—a lament to which we do well to give heed. Now, as then, God is the only refuge.
In First Corinthians, xii. 13, we have an all-assuring promise, showing the escape provided by the understanding of Truth in Christian Science, which defines Jesus as the Way, manifested by his teachings and demonstration.
Since we are to follow in his footsteps, and do the works that he did, it behooves us all to secure at once this most efficient aid. "Get Wisdom; and, with all thy getting, get Understanding,"
Let us for a moment consider what this signifies to man. We learn that Christian Science is a revelation of Truth, acquainting us with God, and with man as His perfect Idea; presenting Life as a problem in Science, to be worked out according to the Principle to which our thought must be educated. The results of this teaching are purity of thought and action, which improve both health and morals, give Life and Immortality to man, with all their attendant blessings; instructing us in the New Tongue, so that we understand, in a degree, the immutable law of Truth and Love, which governs harmony.
Since all excellence comes of labor, it is only just that we should consider this point somewhat. Few people, if any, at the present day, save our honored Teacher and Leader,—the Discoverer of Divine Science,—can form any adequate conception of the twenty years' struggle it has cost to advance this spiritual Truth thus far towards enlightening the age as to the Gospel fulness of salvation and redemption. She has suffered abuse and persecution, without parallel since the apostolic time. False teachers, gathering her table-crumbs, go forth to contest her right claim to the prize she has so surely won; but this has never moved her from the post of right and duty. Jehovah is her "stay and refuge."
I beg leave to consider for what purpose she has borne all this trouble, and reply: For humanity's sake, that you and I may be lifted thereby to a higher and purer sense of Life, as embracing health and holiness.
The Master calls for laborers. Who is ready to drink His cup, stem the tide of public opinion, and come forward boldly to the work, espousing the All of Truth, and walking in the footsteps of Jesus, whose teachings and demonstration make a man "every whit whole"? I repeat the question, "Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by?"
