Article August 27, 1910 Issue

Mrs. Eddy, through a new form of higher criticism,...

Alfred Farlow

New England Magazine

Mrs. Eddy, through a new form of higher criticism, which explains away many of the irrational interpretations of the Scripture and affords a scientific and demonstrable interpretation of God's Word, has saved the Bible for those who were troubled in heart. The premises of Christian Science, like all truly scientific propositions, are very simple when once understood, and they appeal to one as his very own. The major premise of the Christian Science syllogism is the Scriptural teaching, "God is Spirit,"—Life, Truth, Love, the only substance. This spiritual idea is the foundation of all real understanding for since God is the only cause and His creation the only effect, there is really nothing to know but God and His creation, and a correct understanding of God, the cause, includes a direct understanding of His creation. Thus we note that Christian Science is the Science of all sciences, and includes all real knowledge. The Christian Science teaching concerning God is Scriptural, but Mrs. Eddy has advanced beyond the abstract knowledge of Spirit, Life, Truth, Love, and has discovered the demonstrable meaning of these terms.

There is but one explanation of this discovery; namely, this, that Mrs. Eddy lived near enough to God to receive an illumination respecting His nature and manifestation, the allness of Truth, the unreality of evil. She must have been especially sensitive and responsive to spiritual things, and this being understood, one no longer wonders why she could persevere in the face of such a multiplicity of human obstructions, disappointments, and discouragements, with no promise of reward from a material point of view. She had come to understand the psalmist's words, "I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness." She had discovered and demonstrated the fact that not only goodness and spirituality are in evidence as mortals awake from the sleep of materialism to spiritual life, but that health and every legitimate harmony follow as a consequence. Mrs. Eddy perceived that, although mortals upon every hand were struggling to improve their health and happiness by means and methods entirely apart from God, human affairs and conditions could not be really and substantially advanced except as God is more fully relied upon and the Christ more fully honored, in keeping with the Scriptural teaching. "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you."

Mrs. Eddy's thought has elevated human consciousness to a position from which it may give all glory and honor to the infinite creator. Respecting this, she has said, "If any system honors God, it ought to receive aid, not opposition, from all thinking persons. And Christian Science does honor God as no other theory honors Him, and it does this in the way of His appointing, by doing many wonderful works through the divine name and nature" (Science and Health, p. 483). The exalted and sweeping declaration that Spirit is the only Life, substance, and intelligence, may be startling to those who have just heard it for the first time, but upon sober second thought the state of being which it foretells is recognized to be the ultimate of Christian knowledge and when demonstrated is proved to be the EI Dorado of Christian hope.

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Mrs. Eddy, through a new form of higher criticism,...

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