Editorial October 31, 1908 Issue

THE ONWARD MARCH

Annie M. Knott

Christian Scientists often think of their experiences as a repetition of those of the Israelites, in that they, too, have escaped from bondage,—the bondage of material belief, which is no less oppressive than that of Egypt. The journeyings of Christian Scientists are, however, mental, and the enemies to be overthrown the accumulated errors of long centuries,—beliefs in sin, disease, and death, with many attendant beliefs of limitations of every kind; but the grand discovery that all these would-be masters are unreal gives certainly to the prospect of entire freedom as we go forward. Knowing that "the earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof," Christian Scientists aspire to demonstrate their rightful place in the realm of Mind and to prove that Truth's ideas, for which they stand, are entitled to recognition as representing in the highest sense law and order.

When Christian Science entered the domain of therapeutics it was challenged by the existing systems—challenged on the ground that man is material and that he therefore requires material remedies; also, that he is governed by material laws, and that he must obey them or endure the penalities imposed by those who believe in disease laws and material remedies. In spite of these seemingly hard conditions Christian Scientists have proved point by point, that the understanding of spiritual law frees us from all the disabilities attendant upon belief in asserted laws of disease and death, or man-made laws which restrict the human right to follow that which makes for progress.

Before coming to Christian Science most of its present adherents were in bondage to many false beliefs concerning God and man's relation to Him, beliefs which held them in abject submission to sin, suffering, and death. When they ventured to declare for man's God-given right to health and holiness, the self-constituted authorities in the domain of scholastic theology charged them with being unchristian and unscientific, but this only compelled them to add proof to proof that Christian Science is truly named, because it is a rediscovery and revival of the teaching and practice of Christ Jesus. No theologian of any note now ventures to deny that the Christian church ought to heal the sick, whatever his views may be as to method. Thus has Christian Science, by a series of bloodless victories, become firmly entrenched in the realms of theology and medicine. No fair-minded person can to-day deny that the changes wrought in these realms in the last forty years have ushered in better conditions than the world has ever known, and that these changes point to a still greater advance toward the realization of the divine ideal—viz., the perfection of man and the universe.

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