THE actual results of a theory when reduced to practice are all that sustain or destroy its claims. Opposition, persecution, ridicule, invective, weigh not the smallest degree against the righteousness of any cause. In the scales of Truth the balance is not adjusted to opinions or prejudices, however ancient or universally revered, otherwise the tide of human progress had ebbed ages ago. No religion, philosophy, or science, can evade the final judgment of works, by which alone its merit can be decided. Christian Science is no exception, and stands before the world to be judged, not only by what it teaches but by what it does.

The human need of help is piteous beyond language to express. The sufferings superimposed upon mortals because of their servitude to the flesh and their submission to error, exceed the utmost ingenuity of torture ever ascribed to a state of constant terror lest they stumble upon some pitfall of misfortune or disease. Is there no end in sight to all this? Are the agony and the heartache of the world never to cease? Through long ages, men have struggled for freedom and deliverance from pain and weakness and disease, while the highest wisdom and genius of the race have been spent upon the search; and yet failure has been the finish of their efforts. Is there to be no redemption from this hell of earthly torment, no brightening hope of escape from the wretchedness of sin? Must the future ever repeat the history of the past, and succeeding generations, through unnumbered centuries, tread the same pathway of suffering?

Religions of every shade of belief, and curative methods of every conceivable form, have been offered to the world; but the latter have neither diminished nor destroyed disease, nor has the former delivered men from the love of sin. Theories about heaven and hell, or the chances of a future pardon, have no power over the sinful appetites and passions of men; and material modes, fettered by fear and fostered by spiritual ignorance, are helpless to waken mortals from the nightmare of disease. The redemptive and healing religion of Jesus Christ is the one radiant exception among past failures to cope with the seeming power of evil; but alas for the peace of the world! poor suffering mortals, believing misery and death to be the unavoidable heritage of the race, have turned from the practice of his teachings as being too good to be true.

The religion of our Master was pre-eminently one of works. He is remembered and loved to-day for what he did more than for what he said. His deeds were the foundation of his beautiful and impressive teachings, without which they would not have been believed. No other religion can heal the world of its sickness and power as taught and practised by him who founded it and understood it best. There is no other Christianity; there needs to be no other, for Jesus demonstrated its power to save from all evil, and for all time.

Such a religion is Christian Science. It stands on no other foundation and prospers by no other rule than what Christ Jesus said and did; else it could not meet mortals' need as it is doing, nor fulfil its mission as the Comforter. The mere statements of Christian Science might not impress the world beyond other theories that have had their day, were it not that something more than talking is being done in evidence of its truth and helpfulness. The reformation of a sinner, wherein he loses his love of sin and gains a growing desire for good, is more to the point than the most exquisitely worded sermon on the evils of immorality. And the healing of an invalid who has run the gauntlet of all the material modes and methods of mortal man and been turned over as a prey to death, is more Christ-like in its purport and influence, and a more reasonable emulation of our Lord's example, than the injunction of resignation to evil as being in some inscrutable way the will of God.

The Discoverer of Christian Science, through her own healing of the sick, demonstrated its value and practicability before giving her text-book, "Science and Health with key to the Scriptures," to the world. It was thus, at the outset, more than an untried theory or an impossible ideal. Her followers, who are loyal to the behests of this Christ-Science, are endeavoring to emulate her example by making their good deeds the explanation of their good words. That they have succeeded to some extent is now a matter of history, and is daily evidenced in the growth of this movement, a growth that could never have resulted from words alone, though spoken with the tongues of angels, nor from mere theories, however plausible or finely woven. The spiritually hungry among men would have turned away empty and unrefreshed from Christian Science if they had not partaken of at least some crumbs of truth from its table. And if the army of sufferers who have sought its help had received from it no bodily comfort and healing, it would now be but one of the forgotten failures of the past.

The misinformed or the ignorant may speak disparagingly of the teaching of Christian Science, but what will they do with its good works? Should they succeed in the overthrow of this Science, from what other tree could they gather such desirable fruit? Is the good of any community endangered by reason of its Christian Scientists? Rather do we hear from those who have observed them that Christian Science makes of its disciples better citizens, better neighbors, better parents, and better Christians, and it should not be an argument against it makes them better physically as well. The good cheer of any community is enhanced because of its Christian Scientists, for they are optimists of the noblest type, and if they have troubles they hide them as much as possible from the world and conquer them in secret with God. Is not all this commendable if only for the sunshine it sheds upon others? But if this tree is bad, as some would have us believe, why does not that fact appear in its fruit?

The columns of the Sentinel and of The Christian Science Journal tell, in every issue, of wonderful transformations for good, wrought in the lives of those who have faithfully sought God's help in Christian Science. Victims of the most debasing forms of vice have told of their loathsome appetites destroyed, and their ascension into sweeter and brighter conditions; mothers have told of the help received in maintaining the health of their children and the harmony of the home; business men have told of their invaluable aid derived form Christian Science in overcoming the various and complex financial problems and worries, and of their consequent prosperity; and those who had suffered untold miseries from disease, poverty, and misfortune, have gratefully told of the help and healing received in Christian Science when all other hopes had fled. These testimonies have covered the range of nearly every form of suffering and wretchedness known to mortal man, and they are given by intelligent and responsible people. The writer believes that they are true, from what he has himself seen, and they are open to verification by any earnest enquirer.

In seeking to obey the Master's command to heal the sick, Christian Science is doing a greater work for humanity than the mere removal of pain and misery for it is lifting human thought above the plane where these discords originate and exit. To him who obeys from the heart the divine rules of this Science, life takes on a brighter and happier outlook, and the errors that disturb the peace and harmony of mortals become less terrifying and less real; he thinks less of sin and less of sickness as he discerns more of the actual supremacy of good, and the ever-presence of infinite Love. That these effects are Christian, and beneficial in their influence upon society, needs no argument or proof.

If the critics and opponents of Christian Science will be influenced less by its antagonism to their material theories, and look with unprejudiced eye upon what it is doing to alleviate and remove the sufferings of mankind and to emancipate mortals from their materiality and sin, they will discover somewhat of its far-reaching influence for good in in all that concerns the well-being of the race. The full extent of its beneficent work the future must reveal, when eyes are more ready to see and ears to hear. Perhaps no more fitting words could express the divine endorsement of the success of Christian Science than those of Mrs. Eddy, when speaking of this Science, that ''its only power to heal, is its power to do good not evil" (Miscellaneous Writings, P. 4).