In an age of skepticism, in its broader sense as "a suspension of judgment pending examination of the evidence of an alleged truth," mankind as a whole has assumed toward all subjects, and particularly the subject of religion, the intelligent attitude of weighing, considering, testing, and proving before passing judgment. Education and experience have taught men that they must work out their own salvation, and that they may not hope to have God in their lives simply through inheritance or contact "in living and work, with their fellow religionists sharing in their weal and woe." Religion is an individual, and not a racial experience, and the demand that men shall give the "reason of the hope" that is in them, requires evidence of religion in its effects in their daily lives and conduct rather than by genealogical charts or in merely social and economic activities.

All monotheistic religions are judged first by their fundamentals, and secondly by the results of their application as shown in the effects on their adherents, and through them upon the world, in advancing the correct knowledge and worship of God and the establishment of His kingdom. The monotheistic religions differ but little in their fundamentals, which may be stated simply as the correct knowledge and worship of God, and a proper understanding of man's relation to Him. What men think about these fundamentals constitutes theology, or human opinions for the exemplification of the fundamentals, crystallized into sects and creeds. These are almost without limit in number and wholly at variance in expression. Each claims for itself superiority over all the others, and in their discussions, exponents too often forget that ridicule and a lofty superciliousness no longer pass as argument or proof, and that when they essay to consider and pass upon the religions of others, it well behooves the professing servants of the most high God to tread lightly and to remember His command to Moses, "Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground." This is more especially true when an intelligent consideration of the question demands a knowledge which can be gained only by experience and demonstration, and not merely through superficial opinion or even intellectual proficiency.

A man born and raised in the Jewish faith, who turns to Christian Science and finally becomes a member of that church organization, attracts more interest and is subject to greater interrogation than one of any other faith, largely because of the great gulf that has seemed to exist between the Jewish and the Christian faith. An investigation as to the reason why a large number of Jews have become Christian Scientists has not usually been sufficiently thorough to permit of a proper answer to the question, and too often has been the occasion for hasty and improperly supported conclusions and judgment. Christian Science is no longer an experiment, nor is it a mere passing phase of religious belief or fancy. In the nearly fifty years of its existence it has proven its position step by step, and fair-minded thinkers of all classes extend to it proper credit and recognize in it a religious faith which is entitled to proper respect and consideration.

The Jew, like his many thousand Christian neighbors, turns to Christian Science usually for the mere physical healing. He does this as a last resort, in the hope of obtaining relief from the innumerable physical and mental diseases which have refused to yield to any other form of treatment. He turns to Christian Science not from choice, but from necessity, in extremis. He does not consider it as a religion, but merely as a form of treatment, possibly related to some of the psychological methods which sometimes seem to bring relief. At any rate, he is usually in such desperate straits that he is not concerned with the nature of the treatment, but rather with its effects.

Having received his physical healing, and learning that it is but the result of the religious practice of Christian Science, the Jew's natural inclination is to turn from it and spurn it, because it bears the name "Christian," which he has been taught is synonymous with the cause of all the persecution and untold suffering of his race. However, with the physical healing he finds there has come, even though in a slight degree, yet unmistakably, a glimpse of God in action, or Immanuel, "God with us," realized in consciousness.

The natural innate human craving for God, peculiarly intense in the Jew, receives indications of satisfaction. Struggling against the arguments of prejudice and passion and lifted into a little clearer light, he learns that the knowledge of God and truth is not a mere matter of name or theory, but is an experience. As thought is gradually lifted, he begins to perceive that Christian Science is not a new religion, but simply a restatement and fulfilment of the fundamentals of Judaism and of Christianity expressed in such terms as "cancels the disagreement" (Science and Health, p. 361) between them, and affords a common ground upon which Jew and Gentile can meet as sons and daughters of the one God.

Christian Science teaches that we all have one Father, and that true religion consists not in mere beliefs, forms, ceremonies, and rites, but in the absolute and undivided obedience to and worship of the one God and the practice of love toward our fellow men. It illumines both the Old and the New Testament, and through their study the Jew learns that the Founder of Christianity was a Jew; that he taught only Judaism, and that the basis of his teaching was the doctrine of love for God and our fellow men,—"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might," ultimating in the new commandment, "That ye love one another, as I have loved you."

Jesus formulated no doctrine or creed, but lived and demonstrated the life of a true believer and adherent of the one God, and nothing in what he said forms the slightest foundation for the persecutions which have followed in his name, and for which he is not responsible any more than the doctrine of Judaism is responsible for the persecutions between Jew and Jew which fill the pages of Jewish history, or the persecutions by the Jews of those of their own nation and people who strove to follow the teachings and emulate the example of the Master. In fact, religious hatred is not a matter of religion, but a human propensity not related to one religion any more than another, but usually another phase of the dominant thought that "might is right," as enunciated by the dominant authority.

Jesus' life was one of loving ministration to the poor, the needy, the sick, the lame, the dumb, and the blind. As he said, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil." He taught and preached only the doctrines of the Old Testament and the prophets, and Jewish writers were his only authority. The few instances in which he indulged in rebuke were directed, not at the true worshipers, but against false prophets of the one God who substituted formal prayers and sacrificial ceremonies for true worship as expressed in daily conduct and action. As one reads his words, he finds them extremely mild and moderate as compared with many a sermon that can be heard today in the synagogue.

Christian Science revives in the Jew's consciousness the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and affords proof again of the Almighty, who forgiveth all our iniquities and healeth all our diseases,—"a very present help in trouble." He learns that God is not merely a name, but means omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience, and that the worship of Him is not merely profession but practice. He finds in Christian Science the potential fulfilment of all the promises of the Bible, and is inspired with a renewed hope in the ultimate regeneration of mankind which shall finally restore the children of Israel to their rightful heritage as the chosen people of God, not in the sense of an individual race or people, but as mankind universally united by a religion of love. The soulstirring Shema, "Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord," becomes not merely an exclamation or mumbled phrase, but a living, inspiring declaration of a present God whose "hand is not shortened." In brief, the Jew finds in Christian Science the fulfilment of all that he has believed and hoped of religion, not merely as a matter of form, ceremony, or belief, but as an immanent power, omnipotent and omnipresent, and capable of use and demonstration not only in the synagogue and in the church, but in every place and at all times, for the solution of all the problems of human experience.

The term "a Jewish Christian Scientist" is a misnomer, the same as would be the term a Methodist, Presbyterian, or Episcopal Christian Scientist. A Christian Scientist is sui generis eo nomine; he partakes of no other creed or sect, whether Jewish or Gentile. He combines in his religious faith the fundamentals of all monotheistic religions, and differs from them only in that he discards creeds and doctrines and is required to practise and prove in his actions what he professes rather than merely to talk and expound what he believes.

The Jew who becomes a Christian Scientist, burns his bridges behind him, so far as concerns the synagogue and the rites, ceremonies, observances, and affiliations which today seem to constitute the Jewish religion. He does not, however, surrender any of the fundamentals of his old faith,—he but emphasizes them. Christian Science inculcates in him not only the deepest respect, but the demand for the rigid observance both in thought and deed of the spirit as well as the letter of the ten commandments, and particularly of the first commandment, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me," and that other great commandment, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." To him not only the Sabbath but every day becomes holy, in the thought of the ever-presence of God and his activity as God's child about his Father's business. Likewise the other commandments of the Decalogue become not the mere enunciation of ethical rules, but rather spiritual laws, basing all right thinking and acting.

When the Jew goes to the healer in Christian Science, he receives not "foolish talk," but is invited to unite in that prayer to God which is effective in the healing of disease and the dissipation of gloom and discouragement. When the healer does talk, it is to tell him of the wondrous glory and the love of God, the infinite Father, and of man—the real man—in His image and likeness. As the dew of heaven falls upon the parched earth, so upon his heavy heart falls that peace "which passeth all understanding." Religion becomes to him a new inspiration, which incites "the longing to be better and holier, expressed in daily watchfulness and in striving to assimilate more of the divine character" (Science and Health, p. 4), and as he progresses he catches ever broadening and clearer visions of the ultimate fulfilment of the prophecy of Mrs. Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science: "One infinite God, good, unifies men and nations; constitutes the brotherhood of man; ends wars; fulfils the Scripture, 'Love thy neighbor as thyself;' annihilates pagan and Christian idolatry,—whatever is wrong in social, civil, criminal, political, and religious codes; equalizes the sexes; annuls the curse on man, and leaves nothing that can sin, suffer, be punished or destroyed" (Science and Health, p. 340).

All the good law and all the good order which the state or church enjoys today may be traced back over some route to the words and deeds of men who rebelled against the kind of law and the kind of order that they found administrated by its "constituted guardians;" of men who dared to appeal from the "keepers of divine truth" to divine truth itself—from the "trustees of God" to God Himself.—Anon.