Editorial December 23, 1905 Issue

A Full Salvation

Archibald McLellan

The healing of the sick through Christian Science is now largely acknowledged and accepted as the legitimate outcome of the teachings of Science and Health, but many who are cognizant of this healing are not so well informed regarding the reforming and spiritualizing effect the teachings of this book have had upon a large number who had drifted away from their faith in God and to whom the Bible had become a closed book. A few extracts from testimonies of healing published in recent issues of The Christian Science Journal, covering this phase of Christian Science, will be interesting to those who have not been impressed with the evangelistic results which have accompanied Mrs. Eddy's ministry. A man who has been healed of nervous prostration writes, "Before my healing I was a pronounced skeptic on religious matters, and though for appearances' sake a Bible was allowed to remain in my home, it was never read. Now it is in daily use, and through its spiritual interpretation, revealed by our Leader, I am gaining wondrous knowledge." A lady who was healed of a spinal trouble complicated by other diseases, writes, "What it [Christian Science] has done for me physically is but a shadow of the benefits received spiritually." Another man, who testifies that he "was healed of a physical ailment of many years' standing," writes, "It is, however, for the spiritual healing that I am particularly thankful."

A lady who "had been subject to bronchitis for fourteen years," and was healed by Christian Science, writes, "The healing of the body is not the most important, however. The wonderful teachings of Christ Jesus are made clear through the study of our text-book, and this fills my heart with gratitude to our Leader." Still another man writes—"When I first heard of Christian Science, I was attracted to it at once by the beauty of its thought and the logic of its reasoning. I was not suffering at that time, except with a restlessness in reagard to religion, as I often wondered why our religion was not practical, and if we were to obey the Gospel command to heal the sick. The reading of the Scriptures in the light of Christian Science was a new and pleasant experience. It took away from them the sense of mystery and unreality which they had before held for me, and gave them, instead, the sense of being the actual Word of a loving Father to His own children,—the message of 'On earth peace, good-will toward men.'"

And still another, a veteran of the Civil War, writes, "My religious thought was as hopelessly chaotic as my body was sorely afflicted. From my earliest recollection I had been in an attitude of mental protest toward religion, as interpreted by its exponents within the range of my acquaintance and reading. I had passed through many stages of unbelief, until I landed in the ranks of the agnostics. The position of negation, 'I don't know; do you?' fairly expressed my own thought concerning the weighty questions of God, man, and the universe.... When I sought healing of a Christian Science practitioner, it was with no intention of surrendering any portion of my antagonism to religion." This man was redeemed from agnosticism, and he closes his testimony in the following words: "I am filled with a profound sense of gratitude to Mrs. Eddy for the revelation of this great truth to this age, for it has come to me as a most precious blessing, endowing me with health and capacity for usefulness and redeeming my life from barrenness and misery."

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