Christian Scientists are following the Master in the...

Henry Deutsch

Little Falls (Minn.) Transcript

Christian Scientists are following the Master in the spirit as well as the letter of his teachings and endeavoring to practise his precepts and religion, pure and undefiled, and there is raised against them the hand of condemnation and reproach, merely because they are unwilling to admit that the power of God is limited, or that faith must be fettered by human opinions and theological dogmas. And, as ever since that time the teaching of the pure, primitive Christianity of Jesus has been sapped of its vitality through centuries of human opinion and man-made speculation, so to-day the same influence would bar the path leading to the unadulterated, pure religion.

Instead of a mere play of words Christian Science presents its evidence in the clouds of living witnesses who, from all corners of the inhabited globe, bear grateful testimony to the proven efficacy of the Principle of Christian Science in the healing of sickness, sorrow, and sin — an answer infinitely more potent than any human logic could invent, and more persuasive and effective than tongue or pen can portray. Even as the blind man met every hostile and qualifying argument against his healing by one unanswerable statement, "One thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see," so every Christian Scientist is firm in his faith, knowing as he does, that whereas formerly — notwithstanding the best efforts of all human agencies — he was blind in misery, sickness, and despair — sick in body and in soul — now he is well in body, and his soul is renewed in life with the active understanding of the love and beneficence of God, and His tender relations to each of His children.

All know that the world has not yet been wholly regenerated, but the work will progress faster when we learn to look with the optimism of faith and hope towards those who have succeeded, rather than to fetter humanity with the discouraging pessimism arising from the example of those who have failed. It is true that Christian Scientist still eat food, drink water, and breathe air. So did our Master, until he attained to that spirituality which enabled him to demonstrate in its fulness that the Father feeds and clothes men even as he does the "lilies of the field," and not a sparrow falls to the ground without His notice. Because we have not proven the whole of the teaching, must we cease our labors and discontinue striving to be perfect even as our Father in heaven is perfect? Must we give up all hope of heaven because we cannot now see that the kingdom of God is at our hand and is within us?

In all realms of known knowledge was perfection attainable at a bound — by revolution instead of evolution? Should research for wireless telegraphy have ceased because at first there was, and still is, the necessity for wires? Shall Christian Scientists be condemned for what they have not attained and their present works be discredited because they are not all complete? Should we not indeed be grateful for the light that we have, and thus render ourselves fit to receive more, rather than be ungrateful because we have not received all, and thus continue to bar us from receiving any? Christian Scientists are not yet perfect ; they still have much to overcome before the "old man" with his deeds is put off. Although sickness, sorrow, misery, and death yet prevail, Christian Scientist are struggling to overcome them, not as our friend says, by learning to "grin and bear," but with a faith that all things are possible to God, they are earnestly striving, watching, and praying for that consciousness and understanding of God, as Life, Truth, and Love, in whom "we live, and move, and have our being," which shall usher in the vision of St. John, in which the former things are passed away and we shall hear the words, "Behold, I make all things new."

Christian Science cannot harm and never has harmed any one; it has never interfered with, criticised, or condemned the creed or religious belief of any other sector denomination; it fights its battles, not with the sword, but with love; it believes implicitly in the doctrine, "Love your enemies." It emphasizes as daily life practice the Golden Rule, and in opinions, in matters of conviction and conscience, its adherents always strive never to forget the words of Paul, "And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity."

Christian Scientists never proselyte or seek to convert; they never urge or force their opinions or their healing upon the unwilling; but to those sick in sin, bowed down with the weight of suffering in body and soul, Christian Science says, "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters:" and to those that come is made manifest again in this generation the words of the Master, "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."

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