The teachings of Christian Science meet with little, if any, opposition from unprejudiced investigators until the efficacy of spiritual understanding in healing sickness is declared. As Mrs. Eddy says on page 126 of Science and Health, "The point at issue between Christian Science on the one hand, and popular theology on the other, is this: Shall Science explain cause and effect as being both natural and spiritual? Or shall all that is beyond the cognizance of the material senses be called supernatural, and be left to the mercy of speculative hypothesis?"
The first unfolding of Christian Science thought usually elicits the comment "Why, that is nothing new, Christianity has always demanded a fine, high spirituality." Very true, but the average Christian has assumed that to lead a beautiful and holy life, is one thing, while to expect exemption from physical ailments as a result, is quite another.
When, in a sincere desire to know the truth, men begin to awake to the conviction that "these signs shall follow" a large apprehension of God's love, they find it difficult at first to reconcile their sense of responsibility for human life to a suggestion of fatal consequences if the aid of materia medica be ignored; nevertheless they recognize more or less clearly that the "Denial of the possibility of Christian healing robs Christianity of the very element which gave it divine force, and its astonishing and unequalled success in the first century" (Science and Health, p. 134).
