Mary Baker Eddy
with contributions from The Christian Science Board of Directors
Hail,
brother! fling thy banner To the billows and the breeze;We proffer thee warm welcome With our hand, though not our knees.
An
earnest and successful practitioner put a question like this: How is it that in some cases there will be great improvement, and the patient will be a wonder to friends and acquaintances, and then sometimes he will apparently forget what has been gained, allow his enthusiasm to cease, or perhaps turn aside into worldly involvements, until it seems to the practitioner as if his work must begin all over again?
Long
years ago the Spartans were led to a great victory by a schoolmaster whose only weapon was his lute, which put into men's hearts the inspiration of song; and history records many other instances which go to prove that oftentimes it is joy which inspires the world to its heroic deeds.
One
of the many attempts to hinder Nehemiah in his great work of rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem was an open letter to him in which was written, "It is reported among the heathen, and Gashmu saith it, that thou and the Jews think to rebel: for which cause thou buildest the wall, that thou mayest be their king.
To the student of Christian Science fundamental truths contained in the Bible seem to unfold in limitless ways, thus proving the infinitude of the one Mind.
Recently
the writer was told by a lady who had been under Christian Science treatment for some time, of the different practitioners who had treated her and the lines along which they had worked.
We
long have dwelt in twilight dim,Like children half afraid;In lights and shadows of a dreamTogether we have played,Or, holding each the other's hand,Forward a little strayed.
A clergyman is reported to have warned his hearers, in an address, against the attack that rationalism in the form of Christian Science was making on Christianity.
I am told that in the sermon reported in your paper recently, this statement was made: "Christian Science claims to be based solely on the Bible, and to be in harmony with the gospel of Jesus.
The News recently gave notice of a series of sermons to be delivered in one of the local churches, and in it linked the names Christian Science, Theosophy, Spiritualism, New Thought, and Unity in a way likely to leave the impression that these movements have much in common, which is not the case.
In the opening sermon of a revival meeting a bishop is reported to have said, "Christian Scientists do not pray; they merely practise autosuggestion and self-hypnotism.
There
can be no doubt that at the end of two and a half years the world is heartily tired of war's hatreds, barbarities, and sufferings, and that there is today a genuine desire for peace.
Owing
to the obscuring influences of material belief the word faith has to a large extent lost its original meaning,—that which is given to it in the Scriptures, especially in our Master's teachings.
The
explanatory note to be found in The Christian Science Quarterly contains the phrase, "The Bible and the Christian Science text-book are our only preachers.
In August, 1861, I enlisted in the Federal army for the civil war, and served about four years, many times suffering from lung and stomach troubles brought on by the exposure in all kinds of weather to which a cavalryman must submit if he would do his full duty.
We have been interested in Christian Science for about ten years, and during that time our household, consisting of four members, and had many opportunities of proving the practicability of God's laws in healing "all manner of disease.
I did not come into Christian Science for physical healing, but because I believed that if we call ourselves Christians we are bound to heal the sick and the sinning.
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