Article April 26, 1913 Issue

Your contributor, the Rev. A. J. Waldron, has more than...

William J. Bonnin in

Oldham (England) Chronicle

Your contributor, the Rev. A. J. Waldron, has more than once generously testified to the wide extent of the healing work accomplished in Christian Science, and consequently your less cautious readers might be inclined to regard him as speaking with authority on the subject, and to accept as accurate a statement of his appearing in your last issue, which is, in fact, quite an erroneous one. In his article on patience, this clergyman says that virtue is the key of the "New Thought and Christian Science philosophy," and he further explains the "key" as thinking of success, a dwelling not on affliction but on hope.

In the first place, to imagine that Christian Science and what is known as "New Thought" are capable of being coupled as allied systems is a grave mistake. I do not say that what the critic has written may not be applicable to "New Thought," but it is entirely and fundamentally wrong to say that Christian Science has for the key of its philosophy the exercise of the human will and determination. It is just this human will which is the source of trouble, and Christian Science reveals a Christianity in which it is possible for all to experience the good effects to come of its subjugation, and to manifest in some degree the power manifested by him who was able to say, "I can of mine own self do nothing: ... I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me." Christian Science develops spiritual understanding, and this means the understanding of absolute Truth. Every advance in this development is a clearer vision of the eternal fact that only the good is real, and a keener recognition of the fraudulent and unreal nature of evil. And so it is not a question of "thinking of success" and banishing thoughts of affliction, for that is a mere exercise of the human mind, but it is to attain to the consciousness of the omnipresence of God, good, and to realize that through this very consciousness He avails to save and protect, which is the Christian Science practical way of praying to God and so providing a channel for His will to be done on earth. And His will is always good.

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