Article December 29, 1945 Issue

Resolved: To Watch Our Conversation

JOHN H. HOAGLAND

Those who have had no experience with Christian Science, its teaching and practice, may be inclined to dismiss it casually on the basis of what they believe it to be. Perhaps they may think of it as mere optimism, or the repetition of words which are supposed, by self-mesmerism or autosuggestion, temporarily to convince the believer that he is free of some particular inharmony.

What an awakening Christian Science holds in store for those who bring such misconceptions to the noonday sunlight of spiritual understanding and let it illumine consciousness through actual investigation, study, and healing! Such an awakening awaited the writer twenty-seven years ago when, as a young newspaperman, he was so convinced that his mis-judgment of Christian Science was valid that he kept the news announcements of its church services out of the columns which were under his care, believing he was rendering the community a benefit by so doing. When severe illness incapacitated him, not many months later, he turned to Christian Science as a last resort, and was completely healed.

Of course this was not accomplished by mere words, unaccompanied by the divine impetus of spiritual perception and righteous conviction, for words alone mean absolutely nothing in the effectual practice of this scientifically Christian religion, and no one knows this better than the working, demonstrating Christian Scientist. The skeptic, the sinner, the worldly-minded, the materialist, reach their hour of extremity and dire need just like anyone else. And when they turn to Christian Science for the bread of assurance and healing, they are not turned away by the stone of cold formula and empty promise. Christian Scientists do not attempt to talk themselves into health and well-being, nor do they undertake to win the sick, the sinning, and the weary stranger to the blessings of Christian Science through superficial and glossy speech.

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