Article March 28, 1908 Issue

HONEST INVESTIGATION

CLARENCE W. CHADWICK.

There are two species of investigation in the realm of consciousness; the one is genuine, the other is a counterfeit. The honest investigator cares little for what the subject of his investigation claims, but more for what it really does. He holds firmly to the rule laid down by the great Wayshower, "By their fruits ye shall know them." He seldom if ever steps aside to listen to hearsay testimony. What he is after are facts, since facts can always be substantiated. The honest investigator on any plane of human activity is never classed as a denunciator or defamer. He is after the truth, and nothing short of the truth will satisfy him. He ever holds himself open to the recognition of that which is useful, practical, good, pure, and true. Above all, he goes to the fountain-head of reliable information, thereby placing himself in a position to judge accurately, without prejudice or partiality.

The honest investigator of Christian Science comes face to face with true meta-physics, not physics. He must always be fortified with meekness, humility, and justice. He will never work to sustain his own misconceptions — based always upon sense testimony; but instead to eliminate them, and to keep his mind open to the recognition of that which is intended to instruct rather than to amuse the human mind. The first and most natural query on his part will be concerning an authorized text-book upon the subject, and not some one's published criticism or pretended exposition of Christian Science. He will be too wise and too practical to imagine that a hurried or casual reading of any such work could in any sense of the word constitute a thorough investigation of its subject-matter. He knows that it will require study to lay hold of spiritual truths and to present them intelligently to others. However adverse these truths may seem to his own former habits of thought, he will recognize the necessity of making practical application of the truth before even venturing an opinion concerning it.

The text-book will tell him that because God is omnipotent, this great spiritual fact can be proven in the healing of disease; and so he begins to find out how its application can be made. He may remark to himself, as is often the case, that he has believed for years that God was all-mighty, but never before has he been told that he could make practical use of this fact in bringing about the cure of disease. "If this be true, I certainly want to know it," he further observes; and this must always be the attitude of the honest investigator. He continues to ponder and to reason, and soon he arrives at the inevitable conclusion that good is omnipotent, and because good has all power, there cannot possibly be any opposing power.

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