Editorial September 8, 1906 Issue

THE KERNEL IS BENEATH THE HUSK

John B. Willis

He who is awakening to a clear perception of his needs, is taking the first step towards their supply, and one of the encouraging features of the present religious outlook is found in the fact that Christian writers are continually noting and emphasizing the contrast in vital effectiveness between the faith of the early Church and that of modern believers. This contrast is abundantly illustrated and therefore quickly recognized, and thoughtful people can but draw conclusions of deepest import therefrom.

A weekly periodical before us contains a forceful article upon the subject of church federation, respecting which the writer says, that while this much-talked-of movement may in some places save a wasteful duplication of effort and expenditure, it gives no promise whatever of rehabilitating the beneficent influence of the Church, and for the reason that it "offers nothing for improving the ethical status of organized religion, or for restoring the power and spirituality of former days;" and he adds, "The great need is to make the Church mean in present conditions what primitive Christianity meant to the world ages ago."

All earnest and aspiring people can but seek to improve upon methods which have proved inadequate, but in this effort all are liable to make the mistake of centering their attention upon forms rather than upon fundamentals; upon human expression rather than upon divine Principle. Our brother is right in declaring that "the spirit of Christianity" must be regained if the Church is to mean to present-day conditions what it meant to those of the first century, and it is precisely for this that the Founder of the Christian Science movement has ever contended. She saw that in contrast with nineteenth-century conditions the "spirit of primitive Christianity" manifested itself in a faith which continually mounted up to spiritual understanding, a faith which was effective in the healing of sickness and sin, a faith which begat optimism, a "rejoicing in tribulation" which witnesses to conscious spiritual sovereignty regardless of the testimony of the human senses, and which ever leads to enthusiastic endeavor, the heroism that overcomes the world. Seeing this, she declared that "the error of the ages is preaching without practice. The substance of all devotion is the reflection and demonstration of divine Love, healing sickness and destroying sin" (Science and Health, p. 241); and in unwavering adherence to this worthier sense of Christian privilege and responsibility, she essayed to do the Master's works, and won.

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