An eminent English author does full justice to his subject when he refers to prejudice as "decision neither founded upon nor consistent with reason," that it is "the error of ignorance, weakness, or idleness;" "the enemy of all truth, knowledge, and improvement."
Nowhere has human prejudice played a more conspicuous part in the consciousness of mankind than in the religious world. The tenacity with which many professing Christians cling to their early religious beliefs would indicate the assumption on their part of an unwritten law which decrees that one's first impressions and professions of religion are never to be taken from nor added to. Whatever goes against the grain of their religious belief, be this belief ever so remote from the truth, is almost sure to encounter the most stubborn resistance. The unprogressiveness of such a mental attitude has been and is now the cause of much of the unwarrantable opposition to the teachings of Christian Science.
Had Christian healing not been lost sight of as an essential element of Christ's Christianity, there would have been no cause for the sectarian bigotry and prejudice which have stained the pages of the world's religious history. One of the leading objections to Christian Science to-day is that it should presume to practise Christian healing. Can any true Christian look this objection squarely in the face, and then have the courage to say, "I believe in the ever-operative and unchangeable power of God?" What hope for moral and spiritual emancipation if we are never to approach the standard of true Christianity as taught by the Saviour, which all will admit included the healing of the sick through spiritual means only? Is there anything in the Master's teaching, or in his life of incessant spiritual activity, to justify or encourage the determination to bind religion with the fetters of finite human sense, while demanding continual progress along all other lines of human endeavor?
