Article June 30, 1917 Issue

For a number of years I have been interested in the relationship...

Frederick H. Eley

Santa Ana (Cal.) Register

For a number of years I have been interested in the relationship of Christ's teachings to the doctrines founded on these teachings according to the regular orthodox churches. It seems to me that somehow these doctrines, as usually understood, are lacking in some way from what might be expected from the New Testament accounts of Christ's work and teaching while on earth. Possibly the chief of these doctrines is that relating to the understanding of sickness and other inharmonious conditions of the human body. Until recently, and even today, sickness has been looked upon as a kind of natural process which we must put up with as best we may; indeed it is looked upon as a kind of blessing in disguise. Doubtless such results have been accomplished through sickness, but does it necessarily follow that the sickness was for that purpose?

In every age there have been exhibitions of physical healing apart from the recognized method of the physician, most of them being in connection with some religious system. Notably is this true in the case of the methods of Christ. Is it really consistent to think that Christ—the one who is held up as the great example for all the world—would have taught, demonstrated, and enjoined upon mankind a healing and saving method which was effective in the first century but impracticable and impossible at the present time?

We are forced to admit, if we reason logically, that the law which would work once and oftener, would always work if properly invoked. The law of mathematics is a fixed law; any problem worked out by that law brings right results. If we fail to get the right answer every time, the fault is not with the law but with our working out of that law; the mistake is ours. We follow this truth in practical affairs, but when we come to matters spiritual we fail to apply the same common sense. If that law worked with Christ and with his early followers, why should it not work today, and always, when properly applied? It is not enough to be told that the day of miracles is past. Every day proves the fallacy of such a belief. Ever since the foundation of the earth the law of Hertzian waves has been operative, but only recently has it been discovered that we can send messages without the use of wires. Electricity was a force from the beginning, but we were in ignorance of it until Franklin stumbled upon the discovery of this great force.

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