The
transient nature of human existence shows that the real life of man to be immortal must be different from anything within the cognizance of physical sense, and that man himself must be different from what is physically apparent.
The
importance of the Lesson-Sermon in the Christian Scientist's study can hardly be overestimated, for regardless of the particular phase of the Christian Science movement in which it may be one's privilege to work, whether as Sunday school teacher, as officer, or as obedient member, each one resorts daily to the Lesson-Sermon for his mental refreshment.
Many
times in the last few years it has been the writer's experience to be among strangers, without the privilege of attending a Christian Science church or the pleasure of associating with Christian Scientists, and being much of the time alone.
In
Christian Science we are taught that all conditions, both good and bad, are purely mental states, that the only real is the spiritual, and that we suffer from thoughts, not from things.
One
day I was walking on a woodland path with a young Scientist who had but a short time before been healed by the word of Truth after years of sickness and pain.
If the leaders of the religious faith known as Christian Scientists were responsible for no other institution than their publication The Christian Science Monitor, they could find it ample justification for their denominational existence.
If one goes among those who attend Christian Science services regularly, he will find that for a very large percentage of them Christian Science has furnished a "Key to the Scriptures," and has made the Bible a daily companion and constant source of inspiration where it had formerly been a closed book.
There is no disposition to evade the responsibility which rests upon Christian Science to prove by its fruits its fitness to live, but it is fair to note that since the early Christian church it is the only religion that has submitted itself to such a test.
In an article entitled "Just Nerves" a writer, speaking of sufferers from neurasthenia who seek a permanent cure, says, "Their minds are fixed on a magic drug which will instantly, for always, secure heaven's best treasures, peace and health," and adds, "There is no cure that way.
There
is a story of a certain legendary warrior who, because no arrow the enemy might launch could wound him, came to be looked upon as under the special protection of the gods and therefore invulnerable.
Apart
from the teachings of Christian Science, man's likeness to God is very generally believed to be corporeal; and the attempt is made to argue from effect, as seen through the lens of material belief, back to God, the spiritual cause of all reality.
It is with a feeling of deep gratitude for the understanding of the Bible which I have gained through reading "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs.
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