Article September 25, 1909 Issue

AN APPRECIATION

MARTHA SUTTON-THOMPSON.

I WAS glad and rejoiced when I again read (in the Sentinel of March 13) our Leader's words: "The Magna Charta of Christian Science . . . stands for the inalienable, universal rights of men." The editorial "Freedom to worship God," in the Sentinel of March 20, also strikes the key-note of individual self-government. These two points have been very precious to me, i.e., the democratic government of our churches of Christ, Scientist, and the mental, moral, and bodily liberty of the student in following Christ as he understands Christ, Truth; allowing experience to become the index and lever whereby God instructs, chastens, reforms, unfolds, and uplifts. Without this face-to-face experience with God his life-problems remain unsolved.

A student of mathematics becomes a mathematician only to the extent that he solves his own problems and demonstrates his own theorems. Jesus interpreted the Word, and his students were required to work out their salvation by virtue of their own understanding; even their Master's divine knowledge could not do their work for them. So a teacher of Christian Science today is an interpreter of divine Science and its rules of demonstration. The understanding gained by the student of the true teacher is not an acceptance of that teacher's opinion, but the comprehension of the Principle made plain to him through scientific analysis; and the student's own comprehension, not his teachers, must be his basis for work. Upon this basis he learns to discern the line of demarcation between Truth and error and demonstrate harmony in all the affairs of his life.

To teach the Principle of divine Science and explain to students the mythical nature of the opposite, error; to assist all patients to a simple understanding of the same, and how to work for themselves; to receive into church membership only persons who have become in some degree demonstrators of the truths of Christian Science; to provide a democratic, practical, and eminently Christian form of church government,—these are surely the essentials of a righteous conduct of the Christian Science movement. And that these essentials have been the rule—not the exception—is one great reason why Christian Science has stood and thrived in the face of all opposition.

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