It has a future. How far into the years it will project itself, how widely and thoroughly it may spread, no one can predict. This much can be said, and ought to be said, to some who treat the whole question with explosives of disgust: it has a future because it has a vigorous, phenomenally growing present, because, at the heart of this growth, disagree and dissent as we may, there is forcefully evident profound conviction, sincere reverence, such a sense of discovery and victory in daily experience as to make many lives radiant with joy and hope. We judge the future by what the present holds.

Accelerating Momentum.

Letters of inquiry sent to persons outside of Christian Science circles, in eighteen representative cities of our country, bring back word that it is still making headway, and in most places with a greatly accelerated momentum. This testimony is confirmed and very largely supplemented by official publications, weekly and monthly, which I have carefully read. In New York state they claim that the number was doubled last year. In 1867, Mrs. Eddy had one pupil. To-day we find in the "Directory of Christian Science Practitioners" over two thousand names with city and street address. Every state in the Union is found there, also Canada, England, Scotland, France, Germany, Hawaii, and China. The text-book, Science and Health, has gone through one hundred and sixty editions, and the call is for more. Three weeks ago Mr. Kimball claimed in his Chicago lecture that Christian Scientists had nearly two million instances of healing. Make such allowances as the most sceptical insist upon; even then you have a bulky, vigorous fact striding to-day where it was creeping only yesterday. It has emerged from the silence of contempt. Editors, ministers, medical clubs, legislatures, give it attention. Such an aggressive force is bound to project itself yet further. It has a future.

A Few Particular Features.

The uniform report is that their services show a happy and contented company. Something gives them joy. Not many houses of worship have been built; but when they build, they dedicate free of debt. It takes conviction to use the pocketbook in that way. The Sentinel and the Journal give in every issue a large number of letters. Hardheaded business men, as well as women and farmers, open their hearts in testimony; specify as to the healing that has come to their home, sagacity and poise to their business management, and spiritual calm to their minds; and then give name, city, street, number. Just such testimonials are coveted by materia medica and orthodox churches. They are willing witnesses, and zealous in distributing literature. In all this we must admit "promise and potency" for the future.

The Use of the Bible.

Though this is eclectic, fragmentary, and, now and then, flagrantly absurd, still there is a vital joining upon underlying principles: namely, the divine immanence, the communion of man with the Infinite, casting out fear through love, gaining peace through staying the mind on God, divine Power and promise to heal all manner of diseases. In the last particular they claim a fidelity to Scripture superior to that of their critics. They claim to demonstrate the truthfulness of their position in that they do actually cure disease without the use of drugs. Leaving the nature of the cures until later, let it be noted that Christian Science insists on keeping its teaching blended with Bible teaching. The mind comes in contact sympathetically with some of its vitalizing truths. Such buttressing gives strength that promises endurance. Even the novel interpretation awakens interest in the Bible never dreamed of before. Bringing great truths to bear upon every-day worries, fears, ailments, and securing thereby quiet of mind and health, invests that interpretation, in spite of all imperfections, with a glory it will be hard to dissipate. Let the man who applies the whole Scripture to his whole self cast the first stone.

The Large, Waiting Clientage.

There is no fact more evident than that of the misery and restlessness of mankind through disease. How many million dollars are paid annually for patent medicines to heal "chronic lingerings," and that too after other millions have already been paid to physicians! If there be such a thing as "the law of supply and demand," here is a condition of things that will continue to make large demands. And among the people there seems to be a sort of hygienicmessianic expectation. Some are looking for deliverance through a discovery of microbes; others for telepathic channels through which the health of God may surge in upon the ills of man. Christian Science is in search of the man who has tried physicians, baths, travel, climate, and tried in vain. And when healing comes in the last resort, the mind is in a receptive mood for whatever teaching accompanies it. Especially the idea of union with the Infinite, bringing calm, trust, hope, and power over bodily conditions, is a revelation, a joy. Many cling to that, and are made staunch converts. The accession of happy converts makes the future sure.

[Extract from an article in The Standard.]