The apostle James put the practice of Christian Science in one concrete sentence when he wrote, "Shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works." In other words, he saw absolutely clearly that a scientific theory remains merely a scientific theory until it is shown to be true. Now Christianity, as Mrs. Eddy has shown, is a demonstrable Science. "If Christianity is not scientific," she writes, on page 342 of Science and Health, "and Science is not of God, then there is no invariable law, and truth becomes an accident." God necessarily is Principle, and that is what the writers of the New Testament are unquestionably perpetually insisting upon when they talk of a scientific knowledge of God, of a zeal of God but not according to scientific knowledge, of revelation in the scientific knowledge of Him, or to come into a scientific knowledge of the truth. There is no question about this whatever. The word used in the Greek text means something more than knowledge; it means full, exact, or scientific knowledge. Consequently, when Mrs. Eddy writes that if Science is not of God, then there is no invariable law, she is adhering absolutely to the letter and spirit of the New Testament, and is saying that if Science is not of Principle, or is not of Truth, then there is no such thing as Science at all, because there is no law.

All this, of course, is the theory of Christianity, the theory of Christian Science. But Christ Jesus never intended for one moment that it should be left as a theory; he knew that any theory he might preach, so long as it remained a theory, was of no more value than the theories of the scribes or Pharisees. Consequently, when he sent out his disciples it was not only to preach his theory but to demonstrate the truth of that theory, or, as he put it, to preach the gospel and to heal the sick. What is the gospel but the good news about Principle, and what is healing but the demonstration of the truth of this good news. That is why there is no such thing as a miracle in the supernatural sense, and that is why Huxley insisted, perfectly scientifically, that what people were pleased to call miracles could not possibly be an infringement of law, which cannot be infringed, that they could be nothing other than demonstrations of hitherto unsuspected law. The gospel preached by Christ Jesus was the preaching of hitherto unsuspected law, and the so-called miracles of Jesus the Christ were simply the object lessons in demonstration of the truth of this law. And that is exactly what the writer of the Fourth Gospel means when he says, "And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not." The only thing that ever has existed is infinite Principle and its infinite manifestation, and this Principle has existed in spite of the darkness, the mesmerism of human sense, though human sense has never comprehended it.

In the light of this, it is perfectly easy to see why Mrs. Eddy insisted so definitely on the necessity for healing, and why she accepted the responsibility for healing for those who went out to preach Christian Science. "In Science we can use only what we understand," she writes, on page 329 of Science and Health. "We must prove our faith by demonstration." It is perfectly clear, therefore, that the way to induce the world to accept Christian Science is through the healing of the sick. Talking about it, or writing about it, may be a necessary part of the work, but this talking and this writing will go for nothing at all unless, as the apostle James says, the talker or the writer is prepared to prove his faith by his works. Mrs. Eddy does not give any practitioner or student of Christian Science an opportunity for escaping the full significance of this. On page 149 of Science and Health, she writes, "The rule and its perfection of operation never vary in Science. If you fail to succeed in any case, it is because you have not demonstrated the life of Christ, Truth, more in your own life,—because you have not obeyed the rule and proved the Principle of divine Science."