Aside from the "greater works" of Christian Science in healing sin and sickness, there is probably no one phase of its teaching which is doing more to dignify and ennoble human life, than the elimination from human affairs which it is gradually effecting, and the total annihilation which it promises, of the element of chance, or the purely accidental and casual.
That there is such an element playing a large part in our ordinary conduct of affairs, must be apparent to the most superficial observer. To the Christian Scientist it is a self-evident fact, that in so far as human life is not based on divine Principle, it is and must be to that extent unprincipled; that where the one Law does not obtain, there must be caprice; that where Intelligence does not form and control, there can be only chaotic irresponsibility and chance.
This apparent lack of order in human life and the physical universe, seems to show itself in many ways. It affects us much in what we so often term the "blind forces of nature."—in storm and earthquake, flood and fire, blight and drought. In war and pestilence it is rampant and awful. It would seem to begin with birth, run riot with life, and dominate in death. The picture, however drawn, is discouraging and fearful, never more so than as painted by Ecclesiastes: "I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all."
