Article November 2, 1907 Issue

THE STUDY OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE

SAMUEL GREENWOOD.

It is not reasonable to expect a perfect understanding of Christian Science from a month's or a year's study of the subject, no matter how eager the student may be, since this would involve the working out of his complete salvation from all un-Godlikeness, and mortals do not accomplish this work in so short a time. To study Christian Science correctly one must work from a different basis than if the subject were chemistry or mathematics; for in the latter case the student's morals or motives are not held to be necessary factors in his work and do not figure in the result; while concerning Christian Science, which is the Science or knowledge of good, the student's good morals and purity of motive are essential to his success. It should be obvious to all that a hunger after righteousness is indispensable to the gaining of a demonstrable knowledge of God. The desire for bodily ease and release from pain may primarily suffice in seeking Christian Science, but higher aims are needed for the proper pursuit of this study and for the attainment of its lofty spiritual ideal.

Christian Science is not to be intellectually learned. The human intellect confines its outlook mainly to materiality; it accepts the evidence of physical sense as conclusive, basing its premises and conclusions thereon, hence it cannot be the medium by which spiritual truth is interpreted or understood. A material sense of intelligence can have no correct conception of infinite divine Mind. If it were possible to thread one's way through all the mazes of material knowledge, to know all that human wisdom has set up in the name of truth or science, he would find at the end that the doctrines of materialism had not advanced mortals towards the apprehension of man's spiritual being, nor inspired in men the first feeble flutterings of faith in the Christpower to heal the ills of the flesh. As the human mind is unable to illumine its own thought with the spiritual sense of the Scriptures, that is, with its healing sense, it is evident that its systems of philosophy, theology, medicine, or science are neither stepping-stones nor beacon-lights to the understanding of Christian Science, through which the healing Christ again appears to mankind.

Whoever takes up the study of Christian Science from honest motives must discover at the outset that its whole purpose and intent are for the good of humanity; that its only mission is to redeem human thought from its evil and discord, to lift it out of its material beliefs of suffering and sin into the perception of spiritual harmony and reality. One who is not in sympathy with this work cannot fully appreciate the relation of its statements to human need, nor estimate its worth in Christianizing the race. A lack of appreciation of the motives and object of Christian Science is responsible for much of the misrepresentation and opposition which it has received. That broad-minded and large-hearted attitude which is ready to accept the world's Redeemer outside, if need be, of the approved opinions and methods of the past, soonest perceives the meaning, consistency, and potency of Christian Science.

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