Jesus said,"He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber." In reading Jesus' parable of the marriage feast, we learn that they who are invited cannot mingle with the king's guests in the heavenly guest-chamber unless they are clothed upon with the wedding garments of purity and goodness. Christian Science demands "caution in the truth" and condemns that "stubborn purpose to force conclusions" (Unity of Good, p. 5), which in metaphysics results in mistaking the end for the beginning.
It is important that we bear this in mind, for one not infrequently meets with well-meaning but unwise believers, who observe neither caution, order, nor truth; and whose claims to spiritual achievement, based upon certain evidences which they have assumed must follow them that believe, are likely to dishearten and dismay many who are weary and heavy-laden with the problem of the hour. How this reacts upon our cause as upon every other Christian movement may be seen in the fact that these statements, repeated in the mouths of the uninformed, finally reach an unbelieving world, and arouse an incredulity, not to say hostility, which renders it occasionally necessary for the authorized representatives of the movement to remind critics that they need to differentiate between Christian Science and incorrect or partial statements of its teachings.
Close observation sometimes reveals the fact that those who assiduously refer to some physical evidence as conclusive proof of individual healing and spiritual advance, disclose in their conversation and relations with their fellows, qualities which are incompatible with those graces of the spirit shown forth in the sermon on the mount, and which distinguish every true Christian Scientist. The healing works referred to in the sixteenth chapter of Mark as the "signs following" were not the only standard by which the true followers of Christ were to be measured. This is made evident in the seventh chapter of Matthew, wherein the Master expressly refers to counterfeit works and workers: "Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you."
