Article May 6, 1916 Issue

Having Other Gods

ELDO STEDFELD

My young son recently found a calendar and brought it home. At the bottom of each page was a letter from some one setting forth the merits of the patent medicine in the interests of which the calendar had been issued. The little fellow kept turning over the pages, and after a while he said, "Do you know, mother, some of these letters remind me of the testimonies in the Christian Science Sentinel." I said to him, "Look a little farther and see if you can find in what way these are not like the testimonies in the Sentinel." Now this boy has been a member of a Christian Science Sunday school for several years, and has some measure of that spiritual understanding which contact with and study of Christian Science always brings, so it was only a few minutes before he answered me. "I see one reason why these testimonies are not like those in the Sentinel," he said; "it is because they do not say anything about God."

Indirectly the little fellow had hit upon the great difference between the healing gained in Christian Science and relief sought through material means. On page 484 of Science and Health we read: "Drugs and hygiene oppose the supremacy of the divine Mind. Drugs and inert matter are unconscious, mindless." The one who is healed in Christian Science knows that his healing has come from God. He therefore has a better comprehension of God's love and goodness than he had before the healing took place, and by this better comprehension of God's nature he is necessarily in some degree spiritually benefited, and becomes a better man. He does not therefore turn the great tide of gratitude which floods his heart, away from the one God into praise and eulogies of some senseless drug. His faith and confidence in God is fostered and strengthened by this experience of healing, and eventually he comes to know that in finding physical help in Christian Science he has also been lifted into and helped farther along on the road which leads to the peace that passeth understanding.

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