Editorial November 21, 1908 Issue

FOR VALUE RECEIVED

Annie M. Knott

It happens that some who are becoming interested in Christian Science, as well as those who are opposed to it, with strange inconsistency ask why Christian Science practitioners accept fees for their services in healing the sick. The usual argument against such remuneration is that Jesus did not charge for his healing works, and that professed Christians should follow his example in everything—a conclusion with which Christian Scientists heartily agree. At this point we may remind the critics that the majority of the Master's professed followers neither attempt to follow his example, nor obey his explicit commands at all with respect to healing, and that the question of remuneration is surely a secondary one, though still important. While we are not told that Jesus demanded a return for his services, the Gospel accounts make it very clear that he accepted it, and that a number of those who had been healed by him "ministered unto him of their substance." The fair inference is that Jesus and his disciples were entirely supported by the beneficiaries of their healing work.

Matthew, Mark, and Luke are agreed as to the sending out of the disciples on their healing mission (see Matthew, 10 : 1-20; Mark, 6 : 7-13; Luke, 9:6; also Luke, 10 : 1-20). In these narratives we not only find the commission given to the disciples, but also the instructions as to method. They were told that they should not take money, food, or clothing with them, but should depend upon the returns from their healing work. It is noteworthy that these definite orders were given to the seventy as well as to the twelve, and they would have been guilty of gross disobedience had they disregarded them. That Jesus' instructions along this line heeded in the early Church is evident, for the healing work went on and Paul Says, "If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we shall reap your carnal things?"

A fair-minded man who was a lawyer once said to a Christian Scientist that he thought the taking of fees by Scientists lessened the sacredness of their work. He was then asked if his own profession was not sacred to him, and if he felt that the efforts of lawyers to establish justice between men would be more equitable if no fees were charged. He did not attempt to evade this logic, but said he had not thought of it in this way before, and he agreed that for all work faithfully performed an adequate return should be made. The representatives of law, theology, and medicine have never hesitated to accept this return, but have cheerfully assented to the justice of the great Teacher's words, "The laborer is worthy of his hire," except as it applies to work done in Christian Science, and yet this work reaches farther than anything that has been undertaken since the days of Christ Jesus. Not only are the sick healed in Christian Science, but their dispositions are changed, and many legal tangles are adjusted in this way.

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