Article April 19, 1913 Issue

I have read with interest in a recent issue a thoughtful...

John W. Doorly

Manchester (England) Courier

I have read with interest in a recent issue a thoughtful article on "The New Ideal, or Some Fresh Ways of Looking at Life," and no one can fail to agree with its writer that a great spiritual awakening is the necessity of today, and the very fact that this is being realized is an actual proof that the much desired awakening is already here. Two statements from probably the two most prominent people in the world today have within the last week been given much publicity in the newspapers, both of them supporting the essential need for true Christianity. I refer to the statement of our own King about his daily reading of the Bible, and that of the German Emperor, in which he says: "The present generation, which is inclined to believe principally in what can be seen, proved, or touched with the hands, and, on the other hand, shows less capacity for that which is transcendental, puts difficulties in the very word religion, may well learn how it may get back to the faith of its fathers."

I notice, however, that the critic's article offers no remedy for the condition, and this is the usual climax of all philosophy, except that of Jesus Christ. It is, however, chiefly to his remarks on Christian Science that I would like to refer. In the first place, he puts it in the category with spiritualism and theosophy, and evidently in his thought it is analogous to these systems; but any one who has given the slightest study to Christian Science knows that it is as far removed from these systems as the north and south poles are wide apart. Nor is his description of Christian Science in any way correct, when he says that it insists on "the power of thought over matter."

To those who understand it, and who have been able to prove in some slight degree that they do understand it by healing the sick and the sinning, Christian Science is that Christianity for which the critic so longs; it is, indeed, the teaching of Christ Jesus carried to its practical conclusion, that is, the destruction of sin, disease, and death, through the attainment of that Mind "which was also in Christ Jesus." The teachings of Christian Science reveal the fact that spiritual being is the only real being, and that what we term material existence is but the false sense of true being. It reveals that there is but one Mind, one cause, and that all activity or thinking that is real and true, is reflected activity, or the effect of that one cause; as our Saviour expressed it, "I can of mine own self do nothing," "the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works."

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