AN EDITOR REBUKED
[From a letter to Editor Messenger of Truth, Worcester Mass.]
Dear Sir and Brother: I thank you sincerely for your generous confidence, in offering to continue The Messenger to the end of the year: but I must still decline to accept luxuries which I can not pay for when received. I shall be able, no doubt, to read your paper from time to time, as there is a subscriber to it living in the house where I am rooming.
The effect of your last number will be severely felt by those readers and believers not firmly grounded in the understanding of Scientific Truth. I have reference to your Question Department, and the erring and misleading answer given to the question: Does God know anything of this temporal existence and its supposed wants, since both are unreal?
I can scarcely believe that the answer was given by a Normal Student of Christian Science, or by any person having passed through a single course of instruction at the Massachusetts Metaphysical College, or by one even, who accepts understandingly the teachings of the Master, as recorded in the Scriptures, and so clearly expounded in the Key thereto, in Science and Health, by Mary B. G. Eddy.
If such be your understanding of Christian Science, or Divine Truth, the light which you think you see is darkness, and at once removes both yourself and your journal from the field of Scientific certainty; and places you again amid the erring doubts and uncertainties of human belief and human wisdom.
The first three-and-one-half lines of your answer are true; but that they were expressed parrot-like, and without either faith or understanding, is evidenced by the blind contradictions contained in the balance of the attempted explanation. The children of "the flesh are the dream and delusion" of sin. This dream is not the child of God, Good, in any sense. Hence He can have no knowledge of it.
The answer to the second question, Did God send Jesus Christ into the world? is equally unscientific, and shows very marked ignorance of the accredited human laws, as well as the divine law governing the Immaculate Conception, or "Truth made manifest in the flesh."
Do not, dear brother, think that I speak thus merely for the purpose of criticizing. I am urged to do it by the pain it gives me to see your building, of sixteen months labor, suddenly crumble into dust and nothingness, by the work of your own hands. If I may suggest, I would urge you to seek earnest communication with the Comforter, the Christ-spirit, which leadeth into all Truth, and which is ever and always with us, ready and willing to guide and to instruct, if we but seek and ask aright: and call also upon your earthly guide and teacher, Mrs. Eddy, and ask to be set right.
Try and realize more fully the terrible responsibility resting upon all who aspire to teach, and guide earnest and confiding seekers after truth. The Master's fearful warning should ever be before us: "Whoso shall cause one of these little ones, which believe on me, to stumble, it is profitable for him that a great millstone should be hanged about his neck, and that he should be sunk in the depth of the sea."
May the light be given you to teach God's Word correctly, and lead aright those who in confidence trust themselves to your teaching. Through the power and presence of that Light, may you be able to heal the breach which your erring wisdom has wrought, is the hope and wish of yours fraternally,
Denver, Colorado.
NO NAMES
In the study of Divine Science, the first opposite statement of error is most apparent, and consequently the first to be destroyed is that of vanity; and this thought is very strong with me, — that the healer should not allow his or her name to be used in cases of testimony, but rather that patients should say simply, "Christian Science healed me."
The thought in connection with this is that healers will be thereby benefited, for they will sooner see that He healeth all our diseases. The former things (names) will pass away, for He giveth us a new name, and His mark is on our forehead.
Omaha, Nebraska.
LOST OPPORTUNITIES
After all, the grandeur of Christian Science is its simplicity. A child may run and read. All that our Teacher asks or expects of any of us is to be good and to do good, — to change our former affections and desires for better, diviner ones, — and to evolve vigorous and painless bodies from pure and holy thoughts, freighted with energy of purpose.
She asks each of us to do this work, first for ourselves, and then for others, thus bearing each other's burdens, and bringing peace on the earth. When experience has taught us how to gather the meaning from the inspired pages of Science and Health, and to dimly discern the import of a life laid down as a ransom for many, we may well close the book with a sigh, and blush of shame at the chasm between its teachings and our achievements. How puny seem our desires, how meagre our deeds! We talk glibly, and feel impressed, for the moment, with the results our Teacher has brought forth. We admire the grand qualities of Mind which we can not deny she has shown us. The gentleness, the long-suffering, the patience, the endless misunderstandings, the toils and struggles borne with fortitude and Christlike meekness, — all these commend themselves to us, and we feel a thrill of pride that we can call ourselves her students and followers; but the command to go and do likewise wakes too often but a short-lived echo in our hearts, and our spasmodic efforts to indicate the strait and narrow way are mostly flickering rushlights to the world rather than the steady beacons of consistent example.
We mean (so we say) to keep so closely within hearing of her advice and warning as to be saved from ourselves and the contagion of others; but as the path gets thorny and the ascent steep, we linger and wait till we are beyond the reach of her hand, and then think to summon, with imperative demand for help, the Truth which we have denied and crucified. It is in such hours as these that we long to share that healing power in which she is so rich, but in vain. We can remove neither others' woes nor our own. Every farthing of payment is demanded of us in suffering, until we balance our account with God, and take up our march again where we left it; and, footsore and weary, we must work with redoubled energies to recover the ground we have lost.
We borrow of her oil once, — twice; and we fain would come the third time, but the door is shut. Had we not been blessed with a Teacher so faithful, who has forewarned us, we might find some excuse for ourselves while in these morasses of doubt and depression; but every phase of mortal mind — its cruelty, treachery, and hate — is uncovered in Science and Health, and we know the veil has been lifted for us, that we might see the bold claims of sin; and we see also the antidote in Christ, who was the personification of Christian Science.
THE TOUCH OF TRUTH
Christ's works are also parables. They not only prove his mission, constraining men to say, with Nicodemus, "We know thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can do the works that thou doest except God be with him," but they also illustrate his method of work in the highest sphere of life; and in this view the healing of the body, by the touch of Truth, is strikingly significant and profoundly instructive.
The Touch of Truth is the thing that is needed. In the case of the woman mentioned in the fifth chapter of Mark, the disease baffled all material aid. She had spent all her living on physicians, and grew not a whit better. Hopefully the poor patient had entered upon each new experiment, until at length, finding no virtue in these methods, she was ready, almost, to cry out in despair. At this point she heard of Christ (Truth) the Great Physician. Coming to him in trust, reaching forth to touch him, she grasped the thought that made her whole.
Like this is the experience of others who try this divine healing, as now being practised in its purity by those loyal to the Truth in Christian Science, as taught by our dear Teacher. Many may touch the hem of Truth's garment and receive the answer, "So be it! According to thy faith [understanding] it is unto thee."
"Truth for authority, and not authority for Truth," is our motto. Only as Truth is attended with living faith (that is, understanding) will it prove its own royal power.
No man ever achieved anything for Christ, who did not, when necessary, trample both self and selfish enjoyment under foot.
