MY dear friend:— Your letter is at hand. That we should again "talk Theology" after so many years, is to me agreeable; not that I would assume much, or even claim to be a teacher of the system we now discuss. The apostles of Christian Science say, Truth is known only in demonstration; that it is in thinking and doing that we find the way that leads to Truth. Not even revelations, I suppose, come to us unsought. To "work out our own salvation" is the one necessary condition to that deliverance which expresses itself in dominion over the world, the flesh, the devil, in doing the works which Jesus did.
You witnessed twenty five "converted and otherwise blessed," in your recent labors. I wonder of how many of these it can be said in the words of Jesus, "These signs follow them that believe: they lay hands on the sick and they recover"? I wonder whether during your meetings you faithfully preached this part of the Gospel, and with "signs following," confirming your word, you assured the convert that the power to heal the sick belongs to the Word of Life? Pardon me for suspecting that, as a representative of the average Orthodoxy of the time, you totally ignored this one test given by the Master, and by him so closely associated with believing that it is no stretch of logic to say that he who lacks this power is not a believer at all.
I say "average Orthodoxy"; for the rule is, the churches give no heed whatever to this matter, though it was the most prominent feature of the Lord's work with men, and he is "the Way."
