TO the question so often risked, "Why has the Christian Science movement grown so wonderfully?" the first and most natural answer is that it is because the sick are healed and the sinning are reformed through its ministry, as in the early days of Christianity. While this is valid, and satisfactory as far as it goes, it cannot be claimed that it is the only reason. The healing work is largely what appeals to those who are in need of relief from physical and moral distress, but there is likewise a large body of people who are physically well and who are not by any means to be classed in the world's category of sinners, yet these people also are attracted to Christian Science. There must be some reason for this attraction, some reason why good Christian people should leave the churches in which they and their fathers before them have been reared, to embrace this new-old faith, some reason why men and women of brilliant intellectual attainments should find in its simple yet irrefutable logic a satisfactory response to questionings unanswerable by material philosophy, and this reason when ascertained will easily be recognized as the most important factor in the growth of the Christian Science movement.
This reason, we believe, lies in the satisfying and comforting knowledge of God which practically every Christian Scientist will testify has come to him through the study of Science and Health,—a consciousness that God really is the omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent good the Scriptures declare Him to be, rather than the anthropomorphic being conceived by perverted human sense. The great unrest which pervades the Christian churches today, which is the subject of many sermons and is the frequent topic of discussion in the religious press, is directly traceable to the unsatisfied longing to know God—a God who is not the author of sickness and suffering, a God who does not create or permit sin. This longing is satisfied in Christian Science, and those who turn to this faith for the healing of their physical infirmities are as fortunate in finding a better and higher concept of God as are they who come directly for this purpose. This point is pertinently illustrated in the testimony of a former clergyman appearing on page 290 of this issue, and from which we quote as follows:—
In respect to religious affiliation I have not been an ecclesiastical wanderer. Forty years have been passed in one orthodox Christian body, thirty-four of those years being spent in its ministry. I loved my church and served it with a zeal born of conscientious conviction, for through God this church was to me a restraining and sustaining power, and meant
The world's great altar-stairs,
Which led through darkness up to God.
Looking back over that period I now understand that although I was conscious of the divine presence and help, I yet saw God as "through a glass, darkly," for by my training and vows I was compelled to acknowledge Him as the author of evil,—of sin, sickness, and death,—and the creator of a competitor to His throne,—an evil intelligence called the devil. Having accepted and taught these declarations as true, I now know that they obscured my concept of God so that I could not "see him as he is;" and that their pall lay heavy on my heart in spite of the solace and strength which came to me day by day. . . . My concept of God and the universe, including man, seemed to have changed almost in a moment. God appeared to me as perfect Love, no longer the creator of an evil intelligence named the devil; nor was He the author of sin, sickness, disease, and death; and in that moment the unsubstantially of the material creation appeared and I began to understand that God as Spirit could not create anything unlike Himself.
