Our Bible tells us we must acknowledge God in all our ways. To do this aright we must first gain some true conception of what God is. It is in this better understanding of God—of His perfect creation and the perfect laws which govern all here and now, that Christian Science has been such a great blessing and which I wish to acknowledge.
I was born and brought up in an orthodox church by pious parents, and I can never be too thankful for this great blessing, because this early study of the Bible and implicit, childlike faith in God and in His word, is the good seed which must spring up and bear good fruit. It can never be lost, even though it may seem to be lost for a time. In the Puritan village where I lived the children went regularly to church all day on the Sabbath. We had a long sermon in the morning, Sunday School at noon, sermon again in the afternoon, a conference or prayer meeting in the evening. Often these long sermons were thunderings of God's vengeance upon all those who neglected His service.
Later in life, when I went out into the world, I sometimes met ridicule of the Bible and of religion, which I did not know how to answer. My prayers, too, seemed to fail and the positive promises to be unfulfilled. yet when sore pressed by troubles God was always my "refuge and strength, a very present help," and through all He has led me toward a better understanding of Himself. When I first heard of Christian Science it was not presented to me correctly, and seemed ridiculous; but seeing many good results in corrected lives—pride and self overcome as well as sickness—I looked more deeply into it. The claim that the healing was the Christ-healing which our Saviour taught, practised, and commanded all his followers to teach and practise, appealed to me very strongly; but the application of Truth—the Word of God—to the healing of physical sickness seemed very intangible. I could not grasp it at all. My first experience in healing was a proof that it was practical. I had been for years subject to severe colds, which my family feared would end in consumption. In Germany I consulted a prominent physician who gave me a simple remedy, which for nearly ten years kept me free from severe colds, or rather my faith in it kept me free. I carried it with me everywhere and used it on the first appearance of symptoms of sore throat, and it seemed infallible. When a Christian Scientist told me that drugs never healed, that it was our faith in them that healed us, I replied that was not true, that I had a remedy which had kept me free from colds for years and that I must go home and use it, for my throat was then very sore and my bad colds, often ending in months of misery, always began in that way. She said, "If you will do without it to-night, I will treat you and you will find it gone in the morning." I promised, and did find myself well, and the treatment was a positive proof. The old and tried remedy was never used again, although I afterwards had many battles with colds, or rather with my own fear of them and my own faith in drugs to remove the fear, but I have always come off victor, and faith in the All-presence and Power of divine Love, the one Saviour, has grown stronger through these battles with error.
Another fear overcome was the damp climate of Portland. Ore. On my return here after an absence of many years, rheumatism attacked me, and I became convinced that I could never be well in this climate. I used bad-smelling ointments and suffered severe pain. But after the cure of sore throat and after I learned a little of how the cure had been effected, I used my little understanding with immediate and marked results, which surprised me very much. Since then I have used no material remedies, and I have been enabled to heal myself and others of many ills through a better understanding of God as omnipotent Good,—everpresent divine Love,—the perfect Love which casts out fear, and thus heals the sick.
Jesus said the truth should make us free, and I am very thankful to have learned through the study of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," that there is a Science of Christianity which is as exact in its rules and results as the science of mathematics, by which we can work out all our difficult problems, bringing the fulfilment of our Lord's Prayer: "Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven." Jesus, because of his perfect understanding and perfect goodness, could demonstrate this Science perfectly. We have not yet attained thereto, but we know that the re-discovery of his method of universal salvation has come, and is being established in the hearts and lives of men, through the tireless efforts of one who is giving her life to its establishment on earth.
One error of my past teaching which has been made very plain is that calling ourselves "miserable sinners" and asking God to be merciful to sin, or the sinner—which are one and the same—is not the way to eradicate sin, but rather encourages continuing in sin, believing that it has been forgiven in the past and will be again. Also that it is a grave contradiction for this sin or sinner to call God "our Father," since Good is not the author of evil and God has said "ye shall be holy: for I the Lord your God am holy," If our premise is mistaken the structure built upon this foundation will not be permanent. A member of my former church said to me only a few weeks ago, in speaking of proposed changes in the creed, that only the ministers were obliged to subscribe to the creed, and that all you had to believe to become a member was that Jesus Christ came to save sinners, and that you are a sinner.
Another example of the mistaken idea regarding sin and the sinner was given me by a neighbor who is a florist. He had a Chinaman working for him who told him he was a Christian, mentioning the mission he attended. The florist said: "Then you must be a very good Chinaman if you are a Christian." He replied, "No; I velly bad Chinaman."
The florist explained that Christians were always good, but he insisted that he could not be a Christian unless he was "velly bad," and had some sins to be forgiven. While he had undoubtedly somewhat distorted the teachings received in the mission, yet we know that if we regard sin and the sinner as realities of God's creation, we cannot reach the holy heights gained by him who said: "I am the way;" "Follow thou me;" and "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." This is made plain in the following passage from our Leader's "Miscellaneous Writings," p. 62; "Man is seen only in the true likeness of his Maker. Believing a lie, veils the Truth from our vision; even as in mathematics, in summing up positive and negative quantities, the negative quantity offsets an equal positive quantity, making the aggregate positive, or true quantity, by that much, less available."
