Editorial April 16, 1910 Issue

FAITH SHOWN BY WORKS

Archibald McLellan

When we read in the Manual of The Mother Church (p. 17) of the "little band of earnest seekers after Truth" who thirty-one years ago "went into deliberations over forming a church without creeds, to be called the 'Church of Christ, Scientist;'" that the church began its work with twenty-six members; that, "although walking through deep waters, the little church went steadily on, increasing in numbers," and then contrast that small beginning with the unnumbered host who today constitute the "Church of Christ, Scientist," we can but acknowledge that the growth in membership of the Christian Science church has been and is indeed phenomenal in point of numbers. Yet, after all, this is not a true test of the real growth of the movement, nor of its usefulness to humanity. The true test is to be found in the lives of those who are now members of this church and of those who may hereafter become members of it. It is not a question of numbers, but of quality. The need is not so much for more Christian Scientists, as it is for better Christian Scientists; not so much for professions of loyalty, as for Christian living and works of Christian humility and helpfulness.

On page 192 of Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy very clearly defines what constitutes a Christian Scientist, in the following words: "We are Christian Scientists, only we quit our reliance upon that which is false and grasp the true. We are not Christian Scientists until we leave all for Christ." To the mortal, human sense of things this seems to be a proposition which can easily be assented to in words, but not so easily proved by deeds. The difficulty, however, is not in the truth of the statement, but in the unwillingness of the individual to comply with the conditions; for to the extent that we are accepting and relying upon the testimony of the material senses, to that extent we are rejecting the dominion of Spirit and denying the possibility of there being a spiritual sense.

A willingness to leave all for Christ does not come through ecstatic yearning, but through a calm, clear sense of the allness of God, Spirit, and the consequent unreliability and unreality of all that is unlike Him. Under the definition quoted above we fail truly to become Christian Scientists, in proportion to our failure to lay down self-will, self-righteousness, and self-justification, as well as every other belief which would keep us away from Christ, "the divine manifestation of God, which comes to the flesh to destroy incarnate error" (Science and Health, p. 583).

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