Editorial November 23, 1907 Issue

"CHRISTIAN SCIENCE IS SUCCESSFUL."

Archibald McLellan

In Science and Health (p. I04) Mrs. Eddy quotes Professor Agassiz's statement that "every great scientific truth goes through three stages. First, people say it conflicts with the Bible. Next, they say it has been discovered before. Lastly, they say they have always believed it;" and this saying is brought forcibly to mind by the following quotation from a sermon preached by a very eminent clergyman who recently visited the United States. In speaking to a large congregation of business men this clergyman said, "Christian Science is successful because the Church has neglected and ignored the elementary principles of the New Testament, the healing by faith . . . "

Our recollection is that only a few years ago this same clergyman was quite outspoken in his antagonism to Christian Science, and his attitude at that time was not one in which he admitted, as he practically admits now, that Christian Science teaches and demonstrates "the elementary principles of the New Testament" which "the Church" has wrongfully "neglected and ignored." The question naturally arises, Which is more truly Christian, the church which "has neglected and ignored the elementary principles of the New Testament," or the church which has been founded, and successfully maintained, upon the teachings of the Master as recorded in the New Testament? This question is not asked in any spirit of vainglory, but that we may learn why Christian Science is disparaged by those who admit that it is doing the work of the Master.

Somewhat in line with the statement of the reverend gentleman just quoted are the words of a well-known American clergyman, Rev. Dr. H. P. Dewey who recently said, "This is not an atheistic age. Nearly everybody believes in God. The atheistic tendency is the failure to believe that God has anything directly to do with our daily lives. On every hand are signs that there are cravings for this belief. The growth of Christian Science is one proof of it. Multitudes there are who would be glad to find it. They cry out with David, the psalmist of old. 'Take not the Holy Spirit from me.' Religion must be. if anything, the touch of our natures with the divine nature, the longing for something more divine, more spiritual."

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