Article March 16, 1899 Issue

What is Christianity?

Reform Press

Is a Christian one whose great aim in life is to save his own soul ? who, in order to do this goes regularly to church, and whose supreme hope is to get to heaven when he dies ? We think that if there is anything a Christian is not, it is one with a selfish desire to save his own soul. If there is one thing more than another which Christian Science—as taught by Christ—seeks to extirpate from a man's nature, it is selfishness.

In the new version of the New Testament the word " soul " is translated " life." This marks a revolution in the popular theology, and it must mark a revolution in every heart when it comes to better understand that man's Christianity does not consist in merely seeking to purify and save his own soul, but those of his fellow-men as well. We are told in the New Testament that Christianity is leaven. "Leaven" comes from the same root-word as " lever," that which raises up— elevates. Then a Christian must be one who seeks to raise up or elevate the lives of those around him. " To bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, to comfort all that mourn, to give beauty for ashes, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness."

We all know in some relations what it is to be hungry for love. There are those all around us who have an unspeakable heart longing for Christ's love. Pulpit eloquence fails to satisfy this longing, and why ? Famishing and weary because of worldly greed and strife, they seek for a religion that is practical, one that shall fit into every niche of their lives, blessing them every hour, enabling them to look toward the realization of that time when " Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven." They receive but little food or warmth in being told to " Bear their poverty and ills patiently, since it is the Lord's will," and further on when the change called " death " shall have claimed them, they will receive their reward.

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