Article January 11, 1908 Issue

The present age seems unique for the number of societies...

Dudley Wright

The Christian Commonwealth

The present age seems unique for the number of societies of individuals banded together for one common purpose —the search for truth. Other periods of time have witnessed simultaneous outbursts of emotionalism, as when Dr. Maurice Davies penned his series of works on Mystic, Unorthodox, Orthodox, and Heterodox London. Then each one deemed himself infallible, at least in thought. Now infallibility, in theory, is claimed only by the ultraorthodox, and leads, as it has always done, to persecution; only modern persecution is not physical, but takes the form of misrepresentation and slander. In the present movement, or movements, there is at once a divergence and a resemblance. The resemblance lies in the recognition of spiritual forces and their preeminence over the material. Can it be that we are advancing towards the time of which Professor Dana prophesied when he wrote: "The man of the future is man triumphant over dying nature, exulting in the freedom and privilege of spiritual life." What is true will remain, what is false will disappear.

Christian Science claims not to cure disease so much as to expel it by the exaltation of the spiritual over the material. Again I sought for information at the fountainhead, and repaired to First Church of Christ, Scientist, Sloane Terrace, S. W., where the erection of a handsome building has just been completed, the cost entirely contributed by the five hundred members who have been enrolled on its register.

The Wednesday evening service, which commences at eight o'clock, is mainly devoted to the giving of testimony to the power of Christian Science. There is an entire absence of sensationalism; indeed, as the courteous secretary of the Publication Committee said, "Directly there is any evidence of sensational methods you may know it is not Christian Science." If it be said that all the testimonies which were given had reference to cases which would come under the ken of the physician and not surgeon, it is only fair to Christian Science to state that its adherents claim to be able produce indisputable evidence of the healing of diseases declared by medical men to be absolutely incurable. All insisted upon the power of right thought, and that the power of God alone, not drugs, can cure bad tempers and evil dispositions.

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