Article March 29, 1930 Issue

Appreciation through Appropriation

ANNE CLEVELAND CHENEY

True appreciation can come only as we appropriate whatever is good, that is, make it our own through experience rather than by mere theoretical acceptance. Any but the most superficial student in any branch of endeavor soon learns this truth; and every sincere student of Christian Science soon becomes aware that one of the outstanding qualities of its Discoverer and Founder, Mary Baker Eddy, was rugged honesty, incapable of temporizing or compromising with evil. To her, doctrine was an empty code, save as it could be proved in actual living. Doctrine was demonstration and demonstration was doctrine, with her whose mission it was to restore in our day the appreciation, through appropriation, of the practical healing, saving works of Christ Jesus.

In a Christmas sermon included in "Miscellaneous Writings" Mrs. Eddy makes this clear statement (p. 165): "The truth uttered and lived by Jesus, who passed on and left to mortals the rich legacy of what he said and did, makes his followers the heirs to his example; but they can neither appreciate nor appropriate his treasures of Truth and Love, until lifted to these by their own growth and experiences."

How long this has been deemed impossible of attainment by those who have felt that they accepted the teachings of Christ Jesus, but have regarded his mighty works as supernatural manifestations, marvels, or miracles, vouchsafed only to him and to those who came within the radius of his own personal contact or era! By their own growth and experience in Christian Science, faithful students are finding that the only way to appreciate the mission of the great Way-shower is to accept him, without reservation, as the supreme Exemplar, by appropriating his method of work, as well as by subscribing to his profound doctrine. An inestimable service which Christian Science is constantly rendering is its proof that there was nothing mystical, supernatural, or occult in the method of the Nazarene's work.

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"My Father's house"
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