Article July 15, 1911 Issue

Christian Science is sometimes misunderstood, and criticized...

John H. Wheeler

Rolla (Mo.) New Era

Christian Science is sometimes misunderstood, and criticized accordingly, but when it is learned that its one and only mission is to teach mortals to open their eyes to a divine heritage, to behold the spiritual verities as their natural possession, and to make plain the way in which they may be appropriated, then this criticism will be turned to gratitude, and no longer will they school their minds to resist in every way this potent fact which is knocking at their doors.

It is true the average mortal is badly handicapped in his concept of God's infinite nature by his own materialism, for as a man "thinketh in his heart, so is he," and the personal application of Christ Jesus' saving mission will continue to be hidden from him and inoperative. Our Saviour continually preached to the multitude that they must conform to the law of God, that the law is good only, and if evil enters into a consideration of any act it should immediately decide for him that is a moral mistake in the solution of his problem, and immediately upon this discovery to reject the evil—thus "to have domination over the world, the flesh, and the devil." So John's statement, "Now are we the sons of God, ... And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he [Christ Jesus] is pure," clearly defines our present religious duty and the probationary period after physical death in which we must complete our work, undone or badly done here, through the continued opportunity to gain one's spiritual nature in the destruction of his sinful sense of spiritual existence. When this is clearly understood, the recognition of the necessity of eliminating whatever does not glorify God in human thought will give a new power and consequently greater appreciation of spirituality, until old things will have passed away, and all things become new.

We claim that Christian Science is demonstrably proven in the moral growth, together with the physical healing, of those who embrace its teachings and thus fulfil its mission to mankind in pointing the way which our Master taught to apply his instruction. It is God who heals and saves us, and the means of accomplishing this are fully proven by Christian Science to be divine, while they steadfastly point to Christ as our Wayshower after the manner so graphically recited by Paul: "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord."

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