Article February 1, 1913 Issue

On several occasions I have been asked to give my reasons...

George Martin—Sydney, Australia.

Federal Independent

On several occasions I have been asked to give my reasons for leaving the Congregational church and its ministry in order to take up Christian Science. With your permission I would like to do so through the columns of this paper. In the mental journey from matter to Spirit, from sense to Soul, which all are making, there are many stages before the spiritual ideal—perfect manhood in Christ Jesus—is reached. Several of these stages had been reached and passed by me at the time I found myself a minister of the Congregational church. I loved this church; I valued its basic truths; I enjoyed the freedom it gave from creed and formula, and I gave it the best service I could render. While in one of its country charges, for several year I traveled extensively, often doing four thousand miles in 'the course of the year in preaching and visiting. But all this time I was mentally restless, seeking for something, I hardly knew what. I loved the Bible, and gave much time to its study. I read the patristic writings, spent many hours with the mystics, followed the holiness movement, as expounded from its Keswick platform, and for years held faithfully to the doctrine of the second advent, but with it all there was something lacking.

In due time this something became defined to me. It was the lack of a proper understanding of, and a growing conviction of my inability to give, that concrete expression of Truth and Love so graciously manifested by the great Exemplar, Christ Jesus. It was becoming very clear to me that I, as a preacher of the gospel, should be able not only to expound its ethics, but also to demonstrate its fundamental teachings; not only to voice its commands, but to be an example to others as to what obedience to these commands meant. I could tell men that Christ Jesus healed the sick, and commanded his followers to do the same, but I could not say how it was done, nor could I go and do likewise. To quote his words were easy; to give concrete examples of his works seemed impossible. That Christ Jesus was the mediator, or Wayshower, I believed, but how to follow him in the way of his commandments I knew not. If I, as a public expounder of his life and words, did not know, how could I teach others? To be true to the Master, I must accept all he said and copy all he did. But this seemed to be asking too much; for the first I would not do without question, and the second I could not, I did not know how.

Not that I doubted the truth of his statements,—the gospel story was too beautifully simple and divinely natural for that, and withal it was so emphatic and authoritative; and it all seemed so far above me. Those who heard him declared, "Never man spake like this man;" and also, he spake "as one having authority, and not as the scribes." Concerning his own words he could say, "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away." Apparently he knew without a shadow of doubt that he was knowing and doing the Father's will, and this will seemed to be to destroy sin, sickness, and death as it came before him. I read in John's gospel: "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father." I also read in Mark: "Go ye ... and preach. ... And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover." I knew this was the commission Christ Jesus gave to his church, a commission where word was wedded to deed, and precept was not to be divorced from practise, where saying and doing were to go hand in hand, and healing the sick was to be the proof, or fruit, of preaching the gospel. But I also knew only too well that the church had not only ignored and disobeyed this commission, but had torn it in two, reserving to itself the preaching, or the ethical and the easier portion, and delegating to materia medica the healing work, or the practical results which are the natural outcome of the former, thus separating the cure of souls from the cure of bodies; using the power of Truth to heal the one, but leaving the other to be healed by mindless matter, thus adopting means to bring about results, which the Master neither used nor sanctioned.

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