Article May 11, 1912 Issue

"THE PROBLEM OF POVERTY"

MABEL S. THOMSON

It is being daily borne in upon Christian Scientists, very largely no doubt through the instrumentality of the Monitor, that the Christian Science movement is inevitably destined to take a leading place among the forces which are shaping the development of human thought in its emergence, socially and economically, from the restraints of the past into a better conception of liberty and freedom. On page 97 of Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy draws a vivid picture of the conflicts which must arise during this transitional period, and states that Christian Scientists "will maintain law and order" among these chaotic conditions. This being so, it is essential that Christian Scientists should be prepared to undertake this work, and the first step in this preparation seems to be to gain some knowledge of the nature of the problems which are being brought forward.

It appears, to the writer at least, that, roughly speaking, Christian Scientists may be divided into three classes,—those who give themselves wholly to the work of healing, and who see no direct relationship between Christian Science and the problems of "the world without;" those who are inclined to allow their interest in these problems to become of the first importance, Christian Science being relegated to the second place, and those who recognize that the demonstration of Christian Science is the only method by which the increasing difficulties of the social, economic, and industrial world can be settled.

In a recent issue of a well-known weekly newspaper there appeared an article headed "The Problem of Poverty," which suggested very pointedly the fact that a man makes his own conditions far more than the conditions make the man, and that the moral solution of the question is of infinitely greater value and importance than the merely economic one. The writer of the article makes it quite clear, however, from his point of view, that the moral remedy is quite apart from the economic remedy, and in this view agrees with most other writers on this subject, who are generally, if not entirely, far more concerned with discussions on various methods of state aid than with any moral aspect of the case, and it is here that the Christian Scientists, whom the present writer has placed in the second of three divisions, become confused in their conception of the attitude of Christian Science toward all methods of reform, for unconsciously they accept the statement that there are two distinct fields of operation; or, to get at once to the root of the matter, that the mental and physical factors are separate and should so remain.

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