Editorial April 20, 1963 Issue

The Warmth of Christian Science

Helen Wood Bauman

Christian Science is not an emotional religion; it does not confuse personal ectasy with spiritual animus. However, it does promote goodwill, tenderness, unselfishness, and warmth of compassion. When such qualities as these animate the Scientist, the spiritual power to heal the unfortunate, the sinner, and the sufferer is near. The Christ spirit is shining through individual human thought.

Mary Baker Eddy says in the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 113): "The vital part, the heart and soul of Christian Science, is Love. Without this, the letter is but the dead body of Science,—pulseless, cold, inanimate."

It is better to have little of the letter and more of the spirit of Truth than to have little of the spirit and more of the letter. The right balance is found in the Christian Scientist who has both, and in generous measure. The letter is glorious when it is linked with the spirit, for the letter guides the student into infinite paths of Truth that unfold as he advances in spirituality. But if the student is satisfied merely with the letter, a frigid sense of Science sets in; affections become congealed; cold intellectualism, which is a form of materialism, takes over his thought.

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