Article March 28, 1914 Issue

Why the orthodox church is losing ground, may be explained...

Pasadena (Cal.) News

Why the orthodox church is losing ground, may be explained by the fact that even church-members could not find in it the spiritual help they craved, because of the absence of an essential which they found in Christian Science. It is obvious, therefore, that to retain those who remain and to attract others, the orthodox church must supply the missing food for starving souls; but with the living Truth there must also be that other great lodestone, the open practice of healing, which is the lure for so many that have unsuccessfully tried medical science and turn to Christian Science healing as a forlorn hope. As they find relief through the "apprehension of Truth," to quote "A Churchman," for them this religion is identical with primitive Christianity. The testimony of thousands reveals that the orthodox church would not have lost these adherents had it been as Christian and as scientific as this teaching is.

Christian Scientists the world over, it is asserted, testify that to have the Mind of Christ is the goal toward which they are daily striving, and which they could not find as the aim of the churches they left. Is the church afraid to venture on the purely spiritual life which all people crave? it is asked. To save itself it resorts to every kind of attraction to interest people. It deals with social, civic, economic, and political reforms, recommends large schemes for evangelizing the entire world, and uses newspaper space freely to advertise its specialties. We commented recently on the case of a pastor whose bait for the crowd was expressed in the topic he advertised for his Sunday evening discourse: "The Automatic Calf, or Who'll Be the Goat?" Perhaps the spirit of Christ was exemplified in the discourse, but surely not in the garish headlines. How many persons who find spiritual exaltation in the wonderful mid-week meeting of the Christian Science church, fair weather or foul, would forego the communion there experienced to worship at the pedestal of the "automatic calf"? Look abroad and say in what denominational church ninety per cent of its members attend the weekly evening prayermeeting, as is true of the Scientists. It is folly to ignore these phenomena. If average churches cannot draw their people as the Christian Science church does, then it is time to search for the true germ, which the Scientists appear to have found, and inoculate the Protestant religion with its properties.

How the Christian Scientist rejoices in his affiliation! At the California Club in Los Angeles, not long since, a prominent member of the Progressive party, whose recent adoption of Christian Science has transformed his life, appeared transfigured by the new faith that obsessed him. What it had wrought for him was his sole topic of discourse at the dinnertable, and although he apologized for monopolizing the conversation, there was no apology for the subject-matter. We were impressed by the notable change in our friend's demeanor. What Christian Science has done for him it has done for countless others, and we are not disposed to scoff at a religion that has accomplished such wonders and is so powerful a factor in the lives of so many hundreds of thousands of people whose spiritual unrest and bodily sickness have been dissipated by the acceptance of the theology of Christian Science.

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