Article April 1, 1911 Issue

The average Christian is content to admit that there was...

E. M. Ramsay

Aberdeen (Scot.) Journal

The average Christian is content to admit that there was a time, long centuries ago, when men could be healed of their infirmities by the direct action of the Holy Spirit, and be guided in all the affairs of every-day life by that supreme wisdom which made the world and still sustains it, but he thinks that time has passed forever. It was given to Mary Baker Eddy, a devout woman of Puritan New England, reared in the bracing atmosphere of Congregationalism, to see that God's methods of dealing with His children have not changed, that His presence can go with the man of today, leading him over seas and continents unknown to the ancient world, as certainly as it led Israel over the desert sands; that our Lord's command to his followers to heal the sick by spiritual means is as binding now as of yore, and the promise of God's attendant blessing as sure.

Thousands of men and women, drawn from all classes of society and from many nations, have proved Mrs. Eddy's words true and enjoy better health and lead far purer and kindlier lives than before they studied Christian Science. Christian Science is no iconoclastic movement; its students have no wish to deter their neighbors from consulting doctors, have no desire to shut up the hospitals or to interfere with any form of lawful activity. They have none but kindly feelings for every honest attempt to relieve distress and suffering, and only ask for themselves that right of choice which they freely accord to others.

On the subject of death, Mrs. Eddy only reiterates the Bible teaching that death is an enemy, and that it will be eventually overcome. Since all reality is the expression of God and therefore partakes of His eternal indestructible nature, it is manifest that a thing which will one day be destroyed cannot be real in the absoulte sense of the word. Far from claiming that she would not pass through the experience we name death, Mrs. Eddy wrote in "Unity of Good," "The achievement of this ultimatum of Science. complete triumph over death, requires time and immense spiritual growth. I have by no means spoken of myself. I cannot speak of myself as 'sufficient for these things.' I insist only upon the fact, as it exists in divine Science, that man dies not, and on the words of the Master in support of this verity,—words which can never 'pass away, till all be fulfilled'" (p. 43).

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