Editorial March 22, 1913 Issue

JESUS' UNDIVIDED GARMENT

John B. Willis

We can be Christianly scientific or sane only when we honestly seek to meet every known requirement of the divine order. Nevertheless, it is certainly true that some of the demands of spiritual law, as enunciated by Christ Jesus, are habitually ignored by most of his professed followers today, and it would seem that one of the chief offenses of Christian Science in the eyes of many, is its insistence that this habit is discreditable to Christian profession and debilitating to the spiritual life. Mrs. Eddy has declared that there can be no "emasculation ... in divine Science" (Science and Health, p. 271), and in this she but rephrases the thought expressed by "the faithful and true witness" when he condemned the Laodiceans for being "neither cold nor hot," thus protesting for all time against that spirit of partial obedience which professes to honor the truth and yet ignores its demands.

Jesus required of his followers that they should do "all things" which he had commanded them, and his most frequently reiterated injunction was that they preach the gospel and heal the sick. These facts being remembered, it is seen that the insistence of Christian Science is simply that men shall not "take away from the words of the book," that to which they have given theoretical consent, but that they shall accept and put on the Master's undivided garment. This gospel of Christian Science is nothing more nor less than the simple thorough-going Christianity once delivered to all followers of God. It is a call to consistency, to the maintenance by all professing Christians of the integrity of the Master's teaching, that the saving efficiency of his gospel may again be demonstrated with rejoicing in all the earth.

Witnessing before a court of inquiry regarding worldly affairs, men are required to state and stand for "the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth," and can Christian ministers be content to do less in witnessing for the truth their Master taught, verified, and committed to their keeping? One answer to this query is found in the recent report, as published, of the dean of a great cathedral, acting as chairman of a committee appointed to consider the spiritual healing of physical ills ("faith-healing," as named) for which Christian Science stands. It says: "Any attempt on the part of the clergy to enter into competition with the medical practitioner by any separate and independent treatment of the sick is to be strongly deprecated, not merely on practical but also on religious grounds."

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