AS it is now estimated, there are four hundred thousand Christian Scientists in the United States, with the number rapidly increasing, not only in this country but in Europe, and the question is asked by many: "What are the fundamental principles upon which this system of religion is based, and what are their views or position upon the leading questions,—civil, social, political, and religious, of the day?"
These questions arise from the fact that so much healing and good work is being done that it is attracting the earnest attention of all classes, independent of caste or nationality, and like all great discoveries, after passing through periods of ridicule, persecution, and denunciation, is coming into general acceptance as its utility and usefulness are recognized.
Galileo was made to retract his declaration that the world was round instead of flat and four-cornered, and was led away to prison. Copernicus was ostracized and denounced because of his discovery that all astronomical calculations should start from the sun instead of the earth. Nevertheless his discovery stood,—superseding the Ptolemaic theory,— and to-day the stellar system is mapped out from this standpoint, and is called the "Science of Sciences." Likewise, the discovery in 1866, by Rev. Mary Baker Eddy, that all was Mind instead of matter, setting aside the evidence of the material senses, and revealing the allness and supremacy of the One Mind—God and His Ideas—thus unfolding the Truth of being, was at once met with ridicule and derision. Thus it has been with the greatest discovery of all ages. History is but repeating itself. But every attempt to turn mortals aside from this great Truth has only resulted in the downfall of the error, for it is found by those who have investigated without prejudice or selfish motives, to be based upon absolute fact, demonstrated in healing the sick and casting out error.
