POSTERITY will have the right to demand that Christian Science be stated and demonstrated in its godliness and grandeur,—that however little be taught or learned, that little shall be right." These words of our Leader in "Retrospection and Introspection" (p. 61) show with what intuition and foresight she recognized the imperative necessity, in the highest interests of mankind, that the truth she had discovered and given to the world should be promulgated in its purity. If there was adulteration, she urged, the effect would be that "the Science of Christian healing will again be lost, and human suffering will increase" (Retrospection and Introspection, p. 62).
Here we have a statement of Mrs. Eddy's unfaltering conviction that the revelation made to her was divine and therefore embodied absolute truth, that it was for the emancipation and regeneration of humanity, and that it was possible for men to know it definitely and exactly, so that in all its purity and power it would fulfil its high and holy purpose. Huxley once declared that "whatever evil voices may rage, Science, secure among the powers that are eternal, will do her work and be blessed." Though the great agnostic had no thought of Christian Science when he thus wrote, we may take the liberty of applying his utterance to that scientific knowledge of God and His creation which, brought to mankind by Christ Jesus, has been rediscovered and applied in these later years to the joyful redemption of tens of thousands of suffering men and women.
But Mrs. Eddy, remembering the fate that had befallen much of the pure teaching of Jesus, how it had been distorted and misinterpreted and befogged, knew that beneficent results would only continue to flow from this spiritual Science if it were proclaimed as she had expounded it—by the faithfulness and loyalty of Christian Scientists themselves. There is a call, therefore, for what? Demonstration? Yes; but upon what must this be based? Upon a true, precise, and spiritual conception of the fundamentals of our faith. These are explained with what some critics call wearisome reiteration in our text-book. The material for the acquisition of this pure knowledge is there. The truth is stated with a clearness that is a tribute to the author's singular gift of expression. Hence the inquirer who comes to the study of this Science with a willing mind, and some measure of desire for spiritual things, may be assured that he will find his mental capacity expanding and seeming difficulties disappearing. Grasping the fact that it is no more possible to postulate the finiteness of Truth than it is the finiteness of God. for God is Truth, he will with an awakened desire and a measure of spiritual expectancy enroll himself for the attainment of graduate honors in this universal school of knowledge, enter upon a well-trodden path, and rejoice that every step toward the enlightenment of spiritual understanding brings with it absolutely convincing evidence that he has found the way of Life.
