There are few sincere Bible students, reading of Christ's marvelous cures of the sick, who have not felt that those cures were perfect proofs of His power of reflecting the omnipotence of Divine thought. "Had I seen, I would have believed," is their self-righteous commendation. They look with intolerance upon those of Christ's audience who hearing and seeing the marvels believed not. Were these cures repeated to-day at a second coming of Christ, the believers would be no more than there were nineteen centuries ago. For thirty years Christian Science, founded by Rev. Mary Baker G. Eddy, following the very method and spirit of Christ, making literal interpretation of His teaching, has performed wondrous cures. It has been one of the greatest modern movements in opposition to materialism. It has aimed to purify thought, the fountain-head of all action, and to bring it into harmony with Mind, the eternal Principle of all life. Yet it has suffered widespread condemnation and denunciation of many, who in spite of its attesting cures, have refused to investigate it. Like the old astronomer of Padua, they have condemned Galileo but refused to look for themselves through his telescope. They have not seen that the great truth of Christian Science is the exalting of the idea of salvation from sin, disease and death through the right comprehension of Christ's teachings. Many who know nothing of what Christian Science is have been enthusiastic in condemning their own misconceptions of it. A well-known representative of the movement recently said: "In the course of seven years I have met only a few persons, who, claiming to understand Christian Science, have disapproved of it."
The world, through its great teachers and thinkers is accepting more and more the power of Mind over all things, all conditions, all life. Christian Science has projected this power to the supreme logic of its manifestation, and declared that "Mind is all-in-all, that the only realities are the divine Mind and idea."
I cannot at present see my way to accepting the sweeping proposition of the non-reality of matter, the sole causation of phenomena being Mind, and a few phases resultant from this belief, yet I cannot but sympathize with the nobility of the teaching, and its spiritualizing effect on the mind of believers. Its cures have been wonderful, and while one may not understand them, one cannot but respect the process that produced them.
