CHRISTIANITY, as it was understood and practised during the early Christian era, included not only the preaching of the gospel but the healing of the sick, and this healing meant not merely the overcoming of disease and pain, but the overcoming of sorrow, sin, and misery of every character.
The healing effect which resulted from an understanding of the gospel taught by Jesus, was in the nature of a proof of the correctness of his teaching, and it was this healing effect which differentiated his teaching from other religious systems then in vogue, and which attracted to it the attention of the civilized world. That Jesus regarded healing as such proof, is made evident when he said to the messengers from John that they should go and tell him the things they had seen,—"the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, . . . and the deaf hear," apparently confident that such tangible evidence was irrefutable proof of his authority to do the works of the Father. That healing was also regarded as such proof by the early Christian church, is shown in the fact that those chosen to fill certain offices in the church were required to demonstrate or to give proof of their fitness or understanding.
Christian Science has come to restore and reestablish this healing Christianity as it was practised in the early church. While best known and most heard of because of the healing which follows even a slight understanding of its teaching, Christian Science is a purely religious teaching, in which the understanding and application of the truth gleaned from the Scriptures causes discord, whether manifested as sickness or as sin, to disappear as naturally as darkness disappears before light, this effect being the tangible evidence of the correctness of its doctrines.
In presenting a view so divergent from the views generally held, it is encouraging to consider that the desire for immortality has always been the dominant wish of mankind, and that however much men may differ upon this or that subject, there is in human nature a desire to prolong existence, to be sure of its continuity and to assure its peace. This instinctive longing responds to religious truth and serves as a common meeting ground for all men. Paul's epistle to the Galatians emphasizes the fact that the essence of religion is the conscious adjustment of individual conduct to the divine will or law, and has nothing to do with rites or ceremonies.
To be abiding, therefore, the foundations of religious truth must rest upon reason and revelation as they are revealed to mankind in their progress onward and upward. These foundations are not preserved by being buried in the darkness and dampness of mystery, but by being exposed to the light of study, investigation, and application; for only good can come from light, while darkness harbors much that is evil.
The early Christians were cautioned to make use of their religion and to prove their faith by their works. James wrote, "Faith without works is dead." Mankind will usually take the easiest way, and it is much easier to rely upon a person or an organization than it is to make individual investigation of the proper line of conduct. As a result of their clear perception of the truth in the message brought to them by the apostles, the early Christians experienced a close relation to God, which gave them what is unspeakably more precious than anything that could be obtained from the most faithful observance of religious forms and requirements. Their life was pervaded by that Spirit whose fruit, Paul tells us, was "love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance."
This was proved, not by ecstasies, prophesying, or speaking with tongues, but by the holiness and integrity which resulted in lives of purity and in the manifestation of brotherly love. Whatsoever things were honest, just, pure, and of good report were to be thought upon, because there was virtue in them, and because they were profitable and commendable to those who made them their own. To Paul, the essential thing was this inward change, as a result of which one undergoes a radical transformation, is freed from his belief in the power of evil, and puts himself upon the side of God, good. Discord, error in its every phase, was to be destroyed through the attainment of trust in God, joy in Him, and love to all men.
Jesus was always insistent upon the supremacy of God and His law. To him this law meant the eternal harmonious action of a great cause, "with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." In every age there have been a few who have gained glimpses of the truth, but their endeavor to impart to others a knowledge of the intimate relations existing between man and his Maker, which their perception had made clear to them, resulted in a mortal concept of God as a being who could see, hear, and feel materially.
The impulsion toward religious sentiment usually is and has been the result of fear,—fear of those mysterious powers which employ wind, wave, and lightning against a helpless race, —and if there have been periods of sunshine and calm, these have been deemed but the temporary cessation of their activity brought about either as the result of an appeal to a higher power or as the result of an act of propitiation through sacrifice of some sort. In Christian Science, this new-old religion, it is set forth with uncompromising fidelity that the omnipresence of a God who is Love precludes the possibility of the existence of anything but love and those conditions which would naturally follow its expression.
That it is necessary for men to gain a clear knowledge of God, is shown in the command of Jesus, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." When, after having recognized this necessity, mortal man, in his efforts to learn of God, begins to perceive that the great cause and creator of the universe, because of His qualities of omnipotence and omnipresence, must be immeasurable and all-inclusive, he is taking a step in the right direction. He will naturally conclude that this great cause and creator is the Life and intelligence of the universe, and will begin to seek those things which express Him. A knowledge of eternal life is gained, not as the result of passing through some given experience, but as the result of obtaining an understanding or a knowledge of those facts which reveal the absolute truth.
It is manifestly impossible for mortal man (or a finite consciousness) to gain any true conception of the infinite, until material belief gives place to some measure of spiritual understanding; but in his search for peace and harmony, the Christian Scientist finds that a constant, conscious realization of the presence and operation of divine law, the outcome of whose operation must be absolute good, results in his expressing and being surrounded by more and more ideal conditions. While making his endeavor to prove this, he must not lose sight of the fundamental basis of his hope, and remember that all men must attain that Mind "which was also in Christ Jesus." There can be in reality but one sense of goodness, the divine. There is no mortal, generic standard of goodness, for goodness from the human standpoint is but a matter of prevailing belief, one people deeming that commendable and praiseworthy which other peoples may utterly condemn.
It is readily admitted by all, that were it not for the evil in human experience, existence would be happy and peaceful, and throughout all time mankind have been engaged in a struggle to eliminate evil as a factor in their affairs. The result of the ages of effort has not been particularly encouraging, however, for evil seems as rampant as ever, and it is but natural to conclude that there must have been something wrong with the methods employed. It has been and is generally taught and understood that evil is real, and that men must expect to meet it. Christian Science emphasizes the fact that the creations and emanations of an infinite cause, the existence of which is admitted by all scientists and religionists, must necessarily be as perfect as this cause. If it were possible for imperfection to be expressed in any degree by infinite perfection, infinite imperfection would eventuate, and man would surely be without hope of ever rising above this condition.
The teaching of Christian Science with respect to tin's matter is widely criticized and much misunderstood by those who fail to see the distinction which it makes between the real and the unreal. It does not deny that there exists in human consciousness a belief in a power besides God, nor does it deny that this belief has a large influence in the affairs of men, but it does deny that evil is a God-created or God-constituted entity, and concludes that it therefore has no more power than is conceded to it, and that it has no existence in the realm of God-created things.
Evil is not overcome or destroyed, from the standpoint of Christian Science, by the mere denial of its reality, or by the use of specific sentences or forms of words, as some mistakenly believe. No phase of superstition enters into its practice. There may be some students of Christian Science who do not at once get rid of all their superstitions, religious, medical, and racial; but in so far as they yield to these erroneous beliefs they are not Christian Scientists. To the Christian Scientist there is no power apart from God; and while he recognizes the false beliefs of those who have been deceived, he also recognizes the mistake, and destroys the deception in his own consciousness by maintaining his understanding of the one infinite power, God, good, the All-in-all. To the Christian Scientist the evidence of evil is but an indication of belief in the absence of good; but, as Mrs. Eddy has so clearly and carefully explained, "where the spirit of God is, and there is no place where God is not, evil becomes nothing,—the opposite of the something of Spirit" (Science and Health, p. 480).
In maintaining the omnipotence of God and the falsity of "the adversary" and his offspring, Christian Science strictly follows the Scriptures. Our Master proclaimed the devil, or Satan, "a liar," and "the father of it," thus making him a falsity with no deific origin. Because the Christian Scientist is in possession of a demonstrable truth, he is in a position not to believe these falsities, for he can confidently meet and destroy them in his own consciousness. If anything in existence is real and above and beyond false beliefs, it is the creator, the divine Mind, the great and only cause; and as Christian Science bases all its teaching upon this eternal Principle of being, it can but be true.
