THRONGS of people with happy A faces rapidly filled the auditorium of a large city church one Wednesday evening. The organ pealed forth its sweetest notes. The reader arose, announced a hymn, and a thousand glad voices blended as one in a song of praise. Well chosen selections from the Bible and the Christian Science text-book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," were read, then there came a hush. It was the silent prayer, in which the living presence of the one Mind was surely felt in every heart, and a moment later found reverent expression in the audible repetition of the Lord's Prayer. Another hymn was sung, then it was announced that the meeting was open for the giving of experiences and testimonies.
There were many who responded to this invitation, giving grateful expression to the healing power of Christ, Truth, which had enabled them to overcome the mortal belief in sickness, evil habits, sorrow, and want. Among them was one who said that before coming to Christian Science he was a worker in an orthodox church; another spoke of the orthodox belief in a manner which implied that it was a dark shadow from which she had emerged. More testimonies, another hymn of joy, and the great congregation passed out. A stranger or a visitor from other churches may have quietly remarked, "It seems to be a very happy religion, but they themselves admit that it is not orthodox."
The writer, who had been reared in the orthodox Presbyterian faith, asked herself for the first time, Do I really know the meaning of that word? Now, as a word is the expression of a thought, a thought cannot be correctly expressed until the true origin and meaning of the word which expresses it is understood. She therefore consulted her dictionary (Webster's Unabridged), and learned that the word orthodox is derived from two Greek words, meaning "right," and "to think," and Webster. thus defines it: "Sound in ion or doctrine, especially in religious doctrine; hence, holding the Christian faith." In the dawning light which a clearer understanding of God and man is bringing to the world, and in the ever multiplying duties with which the life of a Christian Scientist is filled, as he goes about on his labors of love, it may seem to him to matter little, so long as he knows it is the truth, by what name the world may call his religion, whether it be classed as orthodox or heterodox. But truth and justice always matter; and is it quite just or true to the cause of Christian Science, to the world, or to himself, to admit tacitly that, though he has found a religion far more satisfying, which is filling his life with joy and peace, nevertheless he has practically renounced right thinking, and that, according to Webster, he is not quite "sound in opinion or doctrine"?
