Article March 14, 1908 Issue

It is often asserted that Christian Science draws its...

E. M. Ramsay

The Scottish Review

It is often asserted that Christian Science draws its supporters exclusively from the ranks of the well-to-do. that it appeals to the rich unemployed, to the people on whose hands time hangs heavily, that it is an excellent thing for the self-centered and hysterical, diverting their attention from their imaginary ailments and adding a stimulus to life; but that it has no message for the publican and the sinner, for the toilworn and the downtrodden, no balm for real sorrow. no cure for real disease. Your correspondent writers: "One is struck with the air of respectability about them; evidently all have come from the ranks of the well-to-do;" but this is not so.

Christian Science is a new scientific explanation of "the faith which was once delivered unto the saints," an understanding which is enabling men and women to obey our Lord's oft-repeated commands to heal the sick and cast out devils, to take no thought for the morrow—to ask, expecting to receive. This Science of Life, this Science of being, is transforming us by the renewing of the mind, is leading us out of the mud and the murk towards the glorious liberty of the sons of God. Many of us have come out of great tribulation—have been the bondsmen of sin, poverty, fear, disease. We are not what we were, because our outlook on life is changed. Christian Science does not teach that there is no evil, no sorrow, want, or woe in human experience; but it does teach us that the same power which supplied the widow's cruse will still supply His children's needs; that the "great Physician" is as willing to save from cancer and tuberculosis as of yore from leprosy; that what is needed is not a change in God's attitude to man, but a change in man's attitude to God. More faith is required; not blind credulity, but a scientific rational reliance on "the Father ... with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning," on a God who is Truth, law—on a God whom we can now begin to understand. Is it surprising that, as we look back on the sad past and rejoice in that happy present, we should feel an ever-increasing sense of gratitude to Mrs. Eddy, through whose devoted life and unceasing labors this great discovery has been given to the world?

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Testimony of Healing

Brahmanism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and all the sects...