Any one attempting to touch upon any phase of the subject of Christian Science and its influence on the world to-day will find himself treading upon ground where many others have walked before; for the question is of vital and compelling interest, as we daily come in contact with its adherents and are forced to doff the hat of respect before the sweeping demonstrations of good over evil; of right, clean living over a false sense of pleasure in sin and its attendant miseries.

Macdonald says, "There is no poetry in that which is not true." The truth about anything is all there is to it anyway, but as Goethe states: "It nettles men that truth should be so simple." Fuerbach also adds a home thrust to the quota when he remarks: "The plainer truths are those precisely upon which men hit last of all." The only thing there is to know about Christian Science is the truth about it, and that certainly will not hurt anybody. Striving to find relief from the effects of sin in lifeless concoctions of mortal mind, instead of looking to the one Mind which rules the universe, is only to sink deeper in the mire of ignorance and to nip in the bud the flower of progress.

An unbiased perusal of Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy's remarkable book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," and the privilege of being an eye-witness and a receiver of the benefits conferred upon those who test its merits, has amply proven the efficacy of Christian Science treatment where, in nine cases out of ten, other remedial means have failed. This is convincing proof that the "power behind the throne" of scientific Christianity is God.

Frankly speaking, one reads and hears so much adverse criticism and erroneous upheavals of diabolical denuciation of Christian Science, that it is with a sigh of satisfaction and relief one reaches the conclusion, by personal investigation, that we have not got such a bugbear of unconventional heathenism in our midst after all.

Right into his office and to his desk; right up the dizzy heights of a new building with a hod of mortar on his shoulder; right down in the bowels of the earth with his pick and shovel; right out on the vast ocean where the seamen toil; the Christian Scientist carries his religion with him, and puts into daily practice his understanding of the teachings of the great Galilean Master, who taught the gospel of "faith by works." Verily a sun-kissed flower, rich and warm and fragrantly healthy, vibrating with wholesome energy, has more potent charms than its puny brother struggling along under the eaves of the gloomy structure of doubt and fear, erected by the hands of man. Honest, clean, upright men and women, permeating their surroundings with an atmosphere of love and sympathetic understanding, one is led to remember Pope's Universal Prayer:—

Into our cosmopolitan era there has come a revelation called the Science of Christianity, maintaining that divine Mind is the soul, that Mind rules the universe, and all is Love, Life, Truth, because God is All in all, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent. A doctrine with such sweeping claims, such unprecedented getting away from antediluvian apron-strings, if promulgated in other ages would have been survived by current literature if not by disciples. That this is its initial entrance in the arena of this scene of action since the days when Jesus fed the hungry and healed the sick is evident, and the term of authentic revival of Christ's mode of teaching is applicable.

In an age when turmoil, avariciousness, and a desire for personal supremacy reigns, comes a bugle-call to arms, to rouse ourselves from the lethargy of sensual satiation and apathy, and be about our Father's business. To many, the call of the bugle awakens old memories freighted with that dewy freshness of youth's soul-awakening which the majority of us have at some time experienced; but, alas, the world and its affairs stepped in, and we became walking nonentities amidst the seething vortex of spiritually indifferent men and women. The instinctive desire for freedom from physical and mental ailments, from bondage to sin and disease, is aroused by this bugle-call, and we are led to investigate. Some join the army of seekers and march forward in the rank and file of those searching for truth, while others turn away to sneer and jeer because the uniform is not the one worn by their esteemed ancestors, and others because the battle to be fought is the battle of self-renunciation. Hand-to-hand encounters with error are daily being waged by thousands of brave warriors who are manipulating the sword of Truth as directed by divine Love, and they are not only gaining a victory for themselves, but are helping others by freeing them from the chains of a belief in sickness and sin.

The teaching of Mrs. Eddy is simple, conclusive, and practical. In "Retrospection and Introspection" (p. 79), she says, "If the religion of to-day is constituted of such elements as of old ruled Christ out of the synagogues, it will continue to avoid whatever follows the example of our Lord, and prefers Christ to creed;" and again she writes: "It [Christian Science] raises men from a material sense, into the spiritual understanding and Scientific demonstration of God" (Ibid., p. 80). "Error is unreal because untrue. It is that which seemeth to be and is not" (Science and Health, p. 472).

If Christian Science has done nothing else for humanity, it deserves an honored place, for it has lifted the lodestone of fear from off the shoulders of thousands of people. This monarch of ill has at last received a shaking on his strong-hold of man's ignorant credulity, and, with some at least, his fiery darts enter not, but glance off on the shield of Truth. What do we not fear? Every little draft, wet feet—when we do not hesitate to bathe them every morning,—we are slaves to fear, when we are told in 2 Timothy, 1:7, "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." Science teaches that there is nothing to fear to those who walk uprightly. Certain it is that Christian Scientists appear to be a most self-reliant, fearless people, because they rely wholly on the Originator of all.

Noticeable among true Scientists is the lack of any attempt at proselytizing. They possess a knowledge, an understanding of man's unity with the Father that means more than all the world to them. It is a vital and sacred subject, and derisive curiosity they will not cater to. On the other hand, when one approaches them from the standpoint of earnest desire to know, they do not hesitate to patiently and gently point out the way, teaching others what they themselves have found to be true, that there is a practical redemption from the evils that afflict mankind right here and now. It is significant to note what Browning says in his "An Epistle":—

To attend a Christian Science service and witness hundreds of heads bowed in silent prayer is impressive, and when the Lord's Prayer rises spontaneously from the serious hearts of these thinking and intelligent men and women, it would seem to make the deepest-dyed atheist pause in his self-satisfied passage through life. Arrested by the novelty of Truth, he may stay to learn a new lesson of what a scientific understanding of, and a radical reliance on, divine Principle can reveal.

Through the medium of a woman this revolutionizing Science of Christianity has attained a position amongst the religions of the world that must be acclaimed phenomenal, considering its recent inception, and quickly and inclusively its truth-dealing effects are reaching out and touching the four corners of the realm.

The dignified and patient silence of this remarkable woman, Mrs. Eddy, while false statements are published broadcast in some of our newspapers and periodicals, surely affords ample proof of the possibility of seeing only the good, the true, in everything. The future years will ring with her praises, and her followers will assuredly realize the truth of Browning's