Is it a potential force in our religious development as a nation? Shall it one day enroll a majority of Christian people among its followers? These are practical questions of gravest public and individual import.
If the Journal has rendered any service in this community, it has been by forcing discussion along new lines of thought, and compelling people to think and discuss from new standpoints in public affairs. So we take pleasure in giving space to a presentation of Christian Science in this issue by one of its students. Whether there shall be a more extended presentation of a cause that has already gained many adherents in Oregon depends upon the demands of our readers, as we have no desire to force a propaganda for any select class, or carry on a religious controversy with any one. This paper is at the service of the people, and its only aim is to reach the largest number for the greatest good. That is the highest mission of any educator, be lie teacher, editor, or preacher. If enough of our readers will kindly read and discuss the paragraphs and news selected for them from the official publication of the Christian Scientists published elsewhere, we shall be glad to receive their criticism or approval, for private digestion or publication, and be guided by their wishes in the future. There is always a possibility that the truth in any field has not been exhausted, and especially in the domain of religion. As it appears to us, and we have observed closely, Christian Science has passed conspicuously near to the third stage of Professor Agassiz's progress of reforms. It is becoming too popular with the masses to be treated with disdain by would-be leaders in the world of religious thought. It is about to enter the stage of widespread presentation by popular lectures. This great and undoubtedly potential truth of divine healing of sickness as well as sin is now to be subjected to the crucial test of world-wide adaptability and acceptability by the millions. The millions are prepared to receive a higher type of interpretation and practical demonstration of spiritual truth, and it has never been more clearly formulated than in Christian Science.
The wonderful leadership of Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy cannot be denied by those who have made careful examination. It remained for the new world to produce a new religious leader, and she has established herself behind a bulwark of patient research in history and metaphysical science that sceptics and theologians have bombarded in vain. Successful attacks are no longer made upon the strength of her position from a philosophical standpoint, upon her personal character, purity of motives, sound common sense, or upon her skill as an organizer of her followers or of business affairs. So we make no apology for giving space to-day to a Cause that in ten years has established five hundred churches, has attracted a half-million of students and followers, most of whom are Christian Scientists because its benefits have been demonstrated to them in a practical manner. Editorial from Daily Capital Journal, Salem, Oregon, August 27, 1898.
