Article November 1, 1919 Issue

A Grain of Mustard Seed

ARTHUR S. HOLLIS

OCCASIONALLY the remark is heard that certain persons seem impervious to the truth, that though demonstrations in Christian Science have been brought to their attention, they have persisted in clinging to their material gods and have seemed hardly to realize in the slightest the significance of the phenomena observed. That such an inference is not always justified is proved in the writer's experience. A number of years ago he came to the United States to study a certain branch of medical practice which was not taught in England, his native country, and which he had become assured in his thought was the truth of healing. Soon after starting his study, the subject of Christian Science was presented to him as something more than a mere abstraction, as it had been to him up to that time, and one afternoon he had a long talk with a Christian Science practitioner. That the talk did not appear to interest him deeply is indicated by the fact that, though he has many times tried to recollect the line of thought followed, only one statement seemed to remain wiht him; namely, a remark concerning the healing of a case of Bright's disease.

Some two years after this an advanced case of tuberculosis, which was wonderfully healed in a short time, was brought before his notice. Still no noticeable impression seemed to have been made. Then came a third impression, a year or so later still, when he was in Boston on a visit. The friends with whom he was staying proposed going to a concert one Wednesday evening, and on the way to the hall The Mother Church was passed. The proposal was made, "Let us go in for a few minutes." It was then about 8.10 p. m. Recalling this experience, the outstanding feature is the remembrance of the sense of discomfiture which came from rather noisily entering the church in company with several others, whispering together for a few minutes, and leaving it again, while a service was in progress. During those few minutes one testimony was heard, however,—a man in the balcony declaring in a clear, unfaltering voice that he had been a stammerer before taking up the study of Christian Science. Two or three more years passed, during which the writer was engaged in practice of materia medica with somewhat unsatisfactory results, as it seemed always that there was an element entering into the work that was not included in the ordinary diagnosis.

All through this time there was a thought that would recur at intervals. It was: "I wonder if Christian Science really does heal. There was that case of the stammering man and that tubercular patient. It cannot all be just imagination." He became more and more discouraged with his practice and the results obtainable therefrom, until one day a lecture on Christian Science was attended, more with the idea of passing the time than of obtaining any good therefrom. In it the lecturer told that to his personal knowledge Christian Science had been instrumental in healing a number of organic diseases, and among them he enurmerated the restoration of a dislocated hip to its rightful position without any external manipulation or aid whatever. At once the thought came to the listener: "Then those other cases no doubt were healed through the operation of a definite Principle, and Christian Science is not just good for functional disorders."

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