Editorial February 8, 1919 Issue

Restoration

William D. McCrackan

The world is going to school again. In 1914 it believed itself to be ready for the high school of the higher criticism; in 1919 it finds itself beginning all over again in the primary department, meekly trying to make sure of its three R's. At this hour these three R's spell reparation, restitution, and restoration, and the last of these marks an epoch in world history, the restoration of Israel.

When in 1879 a group of Christian Scientists met to organize a church, they appointed a committee, of which Mrs. Eddy was a member, to draft the Tenets. In those Tenets was the statement that Christian Science "restores the lost Israel: for 'the stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner'" (Manual of The Mother Church, p. 17). From the moment of its discovery Christian Science has been a restorer of the body through the mind, of hope and faith, of longevity, wholesomeness, joy, capacity, life. In restoring, it has also nourished and cherished; in Scriptural language it is that which restoreth the soul, man's spiritual individuality. Christian Science restores spiritual Israel by putting forward the understanding of man in God's image and likeness and so displacing the material concept of man. Everything has its proper place,—business, agriculture, housekeeping, art, copyrights, and patents. When these activities and articles have been misplaced they can all be restored to their proper places. The child which runs away and suffers can be restored to its mother's bosom; the church member who has mistaken the real meaning of Mrs. Eddy's church can be restored to his right mind and his right place.

The stone or rock of ages which has long been rejected by those who seek to build on false foundations is now firmly grounded, immovable, unshakable. Christian Science is not based on the sands of compromise; speculation or duality are foreign to its statement or practice. Unequivocal in its obedience to Spirit, it admits no mixtures. As Mrs. Eddy has stated in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 122): "Good is not educed from its opposite: and Love divine spurned, lessens not the hater's hatred nor the criminal's crime; nor reconciles justice to injustice; nor substitutes the suffering of the Godlike for the suffering due to sin. Neither spiritual bankruptcy nor a religious chancery can win high heaven, or the 'Well done, good and faithful servant, ... enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.'"

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