Article December 24, 1910 Issue

"MEAT FOR STRONG MEN"

WILLIAM HART SPENCER.

The following incident is offered with the hope that it may be of help to some who are young in Christian Science, enabling them to see that, even when expressed in the old phraseology, the truth may be rightly understood and accepted in Christian Science.

Two men were stanch friends for many years, and as both held strongly to the old theology, their mutual interest naturally centered around the beliefs held in common. One went to a foreign shore; but continued his attachment to his old belief. The other gradually became dissatisfied, and finally ceased all religious activity; in the course of time, however, he became a student of Christian Science. The two friends lost sight of one another for a number of years, but their lines again came together, and in the mean time some one had given to the first the information that the other had become interested in Christian Science, which fact was referred to in a letter, full of love and friendship, but absolutely at sea concerning the subject of Christian Science, the reference to which read as follows: "If your faith has been sidetracked, as I have heard, if you have come to accept one of the delusions with which these last times abound, as has been foretold, my heart is filled with unspeakable sorrow." To this his friend answered in part as follows:—

"I'm going to strain a point, and refer to the last part of your letter. I do not need to remind you that, as far as theology is concerned, I am as well read as yourself. You also know that I was not confined to a literary knowledge of the Bible, but will concede, I am sure, that for years I strove to lead a spiritual life. You also know that a number of years ago I became, not an 'unbeliever,' as some would phrase it, but decidedly dissatisfied and discouraged—broken mentally and physically. Nearly seven years ago, during a time of great stress, I was led to read some Christian Science literature, principally because I knew of its redemptive work, which was effective in the lives and characters of some of my intimate friends. I then supposed, as many do now, that Christian Science was some kind of heretical philosophy, and I expressed myself freely at first, to the effect that I wanted nothing contrary to the Scriptures. This stricture, I supposed, applied to Christian Science, but I have found out my mistake! My old Bible has become a new book to me,—I read and study it more than ever before, and little by little its spiritual interpretation has dawned upon me. I found Christian Science anything but a 'delusion.' It has proved a 'key,' whereby the many hitherto hidden things of Scripture are being made clear to me. That this leading is of God has been practically proven. Instead of the 'falling away' which you mention, I am growing closer in touch with the faith of the early church, as taught before materiality destroyed its spirituality.

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