The question is often asked, "What is Christian Science doing for the poor?" and the inquiry is pertinent. Census reports confirm observation respecting the startling fact that a very large majority of the common people are not in touch with any church, and when we remember that Jesus referred to the' preaching of his gospel to the poor as an evidence of its genuineness and authenticity, and that he made constant appeal to the commoner, we can but recognize the propriety of this query as a legitimate test of every religious movement.
This is the searching question: What is Christian Science doing for the poor through me? If we discover that our apprehension of it has not quickened our sympathy for the needy of all stations; if it has not stimulated us to more earnest and intelligent endeavor in their behalf, then we may be quite sure that our understanding is faulty and will prove unsatisfactory and inadequate.
Class religion never has saved humanity and never can. Jesus' response to the appeal of human want was immediate and gracious, although he did not use the mechanism of human philanthropy. He was superior to these things; and in the ideal, Christian Science can have neither place nor plan for them. Nevertheless, it is considerate of human conditions; is tender, compassionate, kind. It follows the Good: Samaritan in its ministry to every condition of human need. It recognizes the sincerity, the genuine piety which has erected asylums, hospitals, and infirmaries, and it does not deny the apparent necessity for all these in the present transitional period of consciousness; and yet every Christian Scientist will follow the Master in the assertion of the present potentiality of that spiritual knowing, which removes for the individual, and hence for the community, all occasion for the existence of these institutions.
