Editorial November 9, 1912 Issue

FAITH AND WORKS

Archibald McLellan

It has been said that the more healing work there is done by Christian Scientists, the greater will be the growth of the movement and the greater will be the consequent benefit conferred upon humanity. This would seem to be a satisfactory answer to a question which is frequently asked by those who have become impatient of what seems to them the slowness of growth in the branch churches or societies of which they are members. Past experience has repeatedly proven that genuine and healthy growth of the Christian Science cause has been due to the fact that this movement is not one of words alone, but rather one of works; that its preaching has not been the sum total of what it has to offer to needy humanity, but that it has been ready as well with its practical demonstrations of the healing and saving power of Truth,—the works which justified the faith.

The one great and important thing, therefore, to be done by Christian Scientists, in order most effectually to help their local churches to grow and prosper, is to demonstrate the fact that Christian Science is based upon divine Principle; that its teachings can be proved to be true, and that the sick and sinful are healed and saved through the practise of its "divine beatitudes" (Science and Health, p. 446). Mrs. Eddy has said that in order to "progress most rapidly in the understanding of Christian Science," it is necessary that one should "study thoroughly the letter and imbibe the spirit;" and not only this, but one must "adhere to the divine Principle of Christian Science and follow the behests of God" (Science and Health, p. 495). Obedience to this loving counsel leads inevitably to the healing of the sick and the regeneration of the sinful. It leads also to that righteousness which Mrs. Eddy exhorted her followers to attain when she wrote, "Beloved Christian Scientists, keep your minds so filled with Truth and Love, that sin, disease, and death cannot enter them" (Sentinel, July 7, 1906).

Upon this platform the growth, not only of the branch churches, but also of individual usefulness, is safely founded. As the church services, the lectures, the distribution of literature, and the other orderly lines of prescribed endeavor are conducted upon this high plane, extraneous means for popularizing Christian Science are soon found to be not only unnecessary but futile. It is through the healing works wrought in demonstration of its teachings that Christian Science has become the world movement that it is today, for go where we may, there are the same conditions which touched with compassion the Saviour of mankind, and the need for the healing truth he taught and demonstrated still calls for that consecrated effort which of old responded to the appeal, "Come over into Macedonia and help us." It must not be forgotten that every one of the Christian Science churches which today are such a tremendously potent force in the religious welfare of the world, had its beginning in the healing work accomplished by some faithful student of our Leader's writings, and that because the healing thus wrought appealed to other needy ones, the circle inevitably widened, until the natural and legitimate result was a strong and steadily growing church.

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