Article February 12, 1903 Issue

A Present Help

Alfred Farlow

Boston Times

Some seem to think that because Christian Science is based upon the propositions that all causation is mental, and that the divine Mind and its manifestation constitute all reality, the adherents of this faith utterly ignore the material universe and its conditions, and expect to depart from earth immediately, and take up their abode in the spiritual realm. This assumption, however, is not in harmony with the teachings of this Science, but is in accord with material theories. Christian Science does not teach that heaven, the immortal state, can be reached by making a journey from one location to another, but by journeying from imperfection to perfection, from a material condition to a spiritual state. However rational Christian Scientist may be in their practice, critics are apt to mistake the end for the beginning, the last lesson for the first. They demand of Christian Scientists what Scientists themselves do not assume ability to perform. All other followers of Christ must admit that their theory demands quite as much as that of Christian Scientists. No more sweeping demand could be made than that which is contained in the Master's injunction, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." The command, "Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead," is no more binding upon Christian Scientist than upon other Christians. If Christian Scientists fail to comply with this requirement of our Lord. it is for the same reason that the members of other denominations fail.

Christian Scientists make no boasts or claims of special ability as individuals to perform the works which the divine order requires. They only claim that it is demanded of all to work out of materiality into a spiritual condition, and that harmony. health, freedom from sin, will follow as a natural consequence. Christian Science is not only a good cure, but also a valuable preventive. It is, perhaps, conceded by all that it is easier to keep out of trouble than to extricate one's self from it, and while Christian Scientists may not be able to heal all the obstinate cases of sin and sickness which are presented to them, they would be able to save millions who are plunging into evil and disease if such would listen to the ethical teaching of this faith. The enlarged. more comprehensive, and spiritual understanding of God which this Science affords, gives to the wayward strength to cope with the powers of darkness with renewed efficiency. A rational Christian Scientist does not expect, at the present time, to reap all that Christian Science promises. He has but started on the journey. He is grateful even to have learned the way. He glad that the journey is begun. He reaps a rich reward for his beginning and patiently waits for greater things.

The improved mental condition which Christian Science has furnished. though it does not take him out of the world, enables him to live above it in a large degree. Jesus noted this and he did not ask that his disciples should be taken out of the world but that they might be kept from the evil in it.

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