One of the most significant facts favorable to the rapid growth of Christian Science is that many Jewish people are accepting it for physical, moral, and spiritual healing. The fact is that Christian Science seems to be the focal point which thinking people of all religious creeds are turning. There must be more than a common reason for this, especially since Christian Science offers nothing in the way of worldly conceits upon which fashion, fad, or fancy can be said to have an influence. Quite the contrary is true, for this Science proves the shallowness and insignificance of such worldly things. The true reason for its marvelous growth lies in the relief it affords from the many sources of human suffering. Christian Science does indeed give relief to poor, suffering humanity, whether the cause of such suffering is from the effects of sin, bodily affliction, or pecuniary difficulty; all these find a remedy in it.
On account of the varying and shifting of creed affiliations, it may not seem so strange that large numbers from other Christian denominations are coming into Christian Science, but that it should offer a religion acceptable to the Jew, presents—to say the least—an argument which thoughtful men will not pass by without consideration. I may be called upon to render proof of my claim that many Jews are embracing the Science. I am not prepared at this time to give any accurate statement of the number, but can say that I have made the acquaintance of nearly one hundred in the last eighteen months; nine of these live in our little town of four thousand inhabitants. Along with a large family. I was brought up in the Jewish faith, and was a proud disciple of it until the very last proof of the Truth of Christian Science had been given to me. It was always my firm impression that the breach between Judaism and Christianity could never be compromised. And when we consider the centuries of the past, with all its history of intolerance, persecution, and destruction, and then see the little band still clinging to the old faith, is it to be wondered that it was thought such a seeming chasm could never be closed, and that there could not be a blending of the two? Indeed, it is quite clear to me how strongly interwoven are the ties and attachments binding the Jewish people together, and because I am of the same web and woof, my words should reach the Jewish heart and arouse— if nothing more—the desire for investigation of the Science which has already won so many of the faith.
Reason and truth have taken the scales from my eyes, and I can see the dawning of the "new day" when the Brotherhood of man and the Fatherhood of 'God will be understood and realized. As the proof of anything calling itself Christian must be conclusive to convince the Jew of its truth, I will endeavor to point out a few reasons why Christian Science may be acceptable to him. In the first place, this Science does not require either the Jew or Gentile to repudiate or renounce anything that is good or practical in other religions. Instead of taking away any of these it adds to their very essence, and instead of converting the Jew to something that has always been his enemy, it blends him with his fellow-man in a union of purified hearts, and brings a refining and regeneration which all must undergo, Christians as well as Jews. Jesus denounced ritualism, hypocrisy, idolatry, sin, sickness, and death, and proved that Love was the Christ and saving power.
