Editorial January 30, 1909 Issue

THE HELPING HAND NOT WITHHELD

Archibald McLellan

A writer in the Evening Telegram of Portland. Oregon, in commenting upon Christian Science asks some questions which are well worth considering and well worth answering, questions which may have presented themselves to others who are not entirely familiar with what Christian Science is doing for the world. The article referred to is so long that we cannot publish it in full, but its trend can be gathered from the following paragraphs:—

In all my looking through Christian Science periodicals, I find invariably ... the prevailing note to be one of personal selfishness. "I was healed." "My circumstances have been much improved." "Life is so much pleasanter for me than it was," and as we know, the large majority of Christian Scientists are well-to-do people. No one can be otherwise than glad that Christian Science is lessening the sorrow and ill health in the world; no one need regret that Christian congregations are prosperous, both as organizations and individuals. That is matter for congratulation both for them and the world. But to apply faith to improve one's personal circumstances or health is not by any means to do all that Jesus did or all he told his followers on earth to do. He made it his especial and particular business "to plunge right down into the mud and mire of the world," as it then was. He was royally indifferent to wealth and all the insignia and trappings of worldly power and ease—things for which "Scientists" have a reasonably normal appetite, to say the least, while to the casual observer many of them show a positive apathy regarding the economic problems of the day.

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