Apart from the immediate effects of any great religious movement, such a movement always enters into a large surrounding area, to modify conditions, to awaken thought, and to beget truth-seeking inquiry concerning a great many things which have previously been accepted as a matter of conventional habit. In the extent and vitality of the penumbral influence thus exerted by Christian Science one may find confirmatory evidence of the truth of its message and the present and prospective significance of its coming. It is in our Leader's anticipation of the confirmations of advancing thought that she has evidenced that intuitive insight which ever has been and ever must be defined as inspirational.
Speaking of the direct and indirect results of Mrs. Eddy's life-work, the editor of a prominent daily has recently said, "She has revivified the Christian faith; she has brought men and women into the fold as ardent church workers, who were but perfunctory worshipers before; she has interpreted the Bible so that millions are reading it to-day in a new light, and with a zest that no piece of fiction has ever imparted; she has filled churches everywhere to the doors, where other religious teachers are bewailing the lack of interest in the doctrines they expound. . . . We see results, and rejoice, nor delve too closely for analytical reasons. We believe that, if a great religious revival is to be experienced in the Christian world, as has been predicted, it will owe its inception to Christian Science, for in that denomination, to-day, is found the abiding enthusiasm that gives new life to the Church." Recognitions like the above are multiplying day by day, and they furnish proof that thought is not only changing, but that for a great multitude it has already passed the skeptical stage, and has become accessible to the shaping influence of the new idea.
Among these progressive changes none are more fundamental than that respecting the divine nature. Against the gross anthropomorphism which has dominated Christian belief for centuries, and which in its manifest inconsistency with creedal assertions of the divine perfection and holiness has proved an irresistibly tempting target for the sarcasm and ridicule of impious critics, the contemptuous satire of a Voltaire, or the mocking derision of an Ingersoll,— against this Mrs. Eddy took her brave and eventful stand for the unflecked ideality of the divine nature and conduct, and for every legitimate inference and conclusion involved in a logical adherence thereto. For forty years, with unswerving insistence, she has declared for "perfect God and perfect man— as the basis of thought and demonstration" (Science and Health, p. 259), and few of those who are familiar with current theological discussion will question the fact that the ends of the earth are rapidly gathering to this standard. Speaking of this trend of things, an eminent philosophical writer has recently said. "Religious thought is gradually casting off its coarse anthropomorphism, and philosophic criticism is fast discrediting the shallow dogmatism of sense-thinking," and the relation of Christian Science to this movement is recognized by the churchman who says of Science and Health, "One rises from a perusal of this book with the feeling that Mrs. Eddy believes the only factor in the universe to be reckoned with is God, and as we study her movement we find that she has infused that thought into the organization which she has established."
