Editorial October 6, 1956 Issue

"PURE RELIGION"

Helen Wood Bauman

The Apostle James says in his epistle (1:26, 27): "If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world." James' words define religion as active goodness; they show no approach to religion through human philosophy, ritual, or the acceptance of dogma. Purity, integrity, freedom from self-deception, and compassion for the afflicted set the standard of religion as James received it from Christ Jesus. This standard is seen, for instance, in the Master's teaching (John 4:24), "God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth."

Christian Science is a religion which calls for strict conformity with the life and works of the Master, even to the point of destroying every evil thought and restoring health and life. Mary Baker Eddy says in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 138): "The supremacy of Spirit was the foundation on which Jesus built. His sublime summary points to the religion of Love."

Religion is pure in the measure that it adheres to the truth of being. There is an absolute truth concerning God and man, the universe and law, and a truth is always demonstrable—one can prove it. Christian Science reveals the truth of all things, and it demonstrates what it reveals. There is no mystery about the method of Christian Science. It changes the basis of the thought of humanity from matter to Spirit. It declares that Spirit is All and supreme and that God governs the universe, that man is spiritual and inseparable from the Father, that true law is the will of God, that the flesh is illusion, that evil is not in Truth; hence there is no truth in evil, as the Master averred (see John 8:44). In the degree that these facts are brought to bear upon the sick and sinful thoughts of mortals, mankind are restored to health and regenerated.

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