A very popular impression in regard to Christian Science is that it is merely a system of drugless healing, and this view has been so strongly held by many critics of Mrs. Eddy's teachings that they are considerably surprised when informed that the aim and purpose of these teachings is to rescue mankind from all their erroneous beliefs, whether those beliefs are in the reality of sickness or of sin. It is true that most of the testimonies to the efficacy of Christian Science, published in our periodicals or related in the Wednesday evening meetings, refer to the healing of disease, but not all of them are of this kind. As an example of those which deal directly with the reformation of character, we would call attention to the letter received by Mrs. Eddy from an inmate of the Colorado state prison, which we publish on another page.
The reason why Christian Science is more widely known as a system of healing the sick than as a means of reforming the sinning, is that mortals are usually more interested in getting rid of their pains than in surrendering what they believe to be pleasures. If it were not that vice is painted in alluring colors, and that a certain atmosphere of romance is thrown around the commonest sins, our jails and prisons would be comparatively empty. Again, many men and women are led into temptation through their desire to be smart, or, as they say, "to get out of a rut," and they entertain the erroneous supposition that these gilded sins confer pleasure or distinction. It is only when the term sin is understood in its broadest sense, as it comes to be known in Christian Science, that mortals awake to its subtlety and learn how to forsake it.
Mrs. Eddy writes in Science and Health (p. 450); "The Christian Scientist has enlisted to lessen evil, disease, and death; and he will overcome them by understanding their nothingness and the allness of God, or good." It is because the writer of the letter referred to has obtained this understanding that he has enlisted in the great work of Christian Science, and he has entered upon this undertaking in the right way,—he has begun by casting evils out of himself.
