Editorial September 17, 1904 Issue

Fruits Demanded

The general extension and rapid growth of the Christian Science movement has been such that we are always surprised when attention is called to some community wherein this truth has been known five, ten, or even fifteen years, but nevertheless the work is not found firmly established, and no perceptible gain is being made. Perhaps the few who maintain a church organization are meeting every Sunday and every Wednesday at the home of one of their number, or possibly they are meeting in a rented hall. Nothing is left undone in the way of signs on the building in which the services are held, and announcement of the time and place is never omitted from the newspapers, but the organization does not grow; the staid and decorous character of the services is not disturbed by the intrusion of an inquiring public, nor are there any additions to the little flock unless by the advent of some newcomer to the city, who has previously been identified with the movement in some other field. These additions are, however, usually more than offset by the withdrawal of those who move away, and, as a consequence, the church or society is in a languishing condition and eventually the work is abandoned unless some one from another field is prevailed upon to come and save it.

Fortunately cases such as we have described are rare, and this occasional ineffectiveness is more than offset by the activity of other communities which, so far as natural conditions are concerned, present no better field for Christian labor than do those wherein the work is at a standstill.

The explanation of the controlling conditions is not difficult. The work of healing the sick is not given the prominence which is invariably the forerunner of a vigorous and growing organization of Christian Scientists. If this healing work is not done, there is no basis upon which to organize a Christian Science church. If there are no "signs following," this is sufficient evidence that there is nothing present but the letter of Christian Science, "its dead body,—pulseless, cold, inanimate" (Science and Health, p. 113). "But," say these good people, "what can we do? We are not practitioners." "Then," we are almost tempted to answer, "you are not Christian Scientists. 'By their fruits ye shall know them.' " It would be no more inconsistent for one man to say, "I am a mathematician, but I can't do a sum in addition," than it is for another to say, "I am a Christian Scientist, but I can't heal the sick."

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