Entirely apart from the question of physical healing, it is generally conceded that Christian Science produces a happy and contented mentality, that it destroys fear and makes people loving and kind. When we add to this the fact that it has healed many sick people who had previously been unable to find relief under other systems, that it has cured many of the drug habit and the liquor habit, has restored harmony in many homes which were discordant, and has given hope and courage to people who were discouraged, it is easy to understand why it has spread with such wonderful rapidity.
It has been truly said that every person has a problem, either physical or mental, a domestic or a business problem, toward the solution of which he needs God's help; and if Christian Science is able to help people to be happy, to be healthy, to be less fault-finding, to have less fear and to have more love, then it is something which every one must desire. Before becoming interested in Christian Science I was a member of an orthodox church. I had been taught to read the Bible and to respect and venerate its teachings, and I did so. There was one thing, however, which I was never able to understand, and that was why everybody who lived at the time of Jesus and witnessed his wonderful works did not believe in him. It seemed to me that if I had lived at that time, and had been able to see him heal leprosy, blindness, insanity, and raise the dead, it would have been very easy to believe in him. People who witnessed those works, however, were not always impressed in his favor because of them, for when he performed one of his most wonderful cures it stirred some of the people to rage. For instance, when he raised Lazarus from the dead, one of the eye-witnesses hastened to report it to the authorities in Jerusalem, and the Jewish Sanhedrim forthwith declared that Jesus must be put to death; because, they said, if this were not done, all the people would follow him.
Since becoming a Christian Scientist I can understand why the people of his time were not convinced by the works of Christ Jesus that he was the true representative of God. They believed that a Messiah would come, but they expected him to come in a certain way, and because he did not come in that way they refused to believe in him. It is the same quality of thought which prevents people at the present time from being convinced that Christian Science is the truth by the works that it does. People in other churches pray for the recovery of the sick. They do so because of the promises found in the Bible; but when the healing comes through the Christian Science church and as the result of Christian Science prayer, some are ready to condemn it,— as ready today as two thousand years ago to declare that the healing works are done through Beelzebub.
