The kindly spirit in which the speaker at Christ Church Cathedral touched upon the subject of Christian Science, as reported in The Times, will be appreciated by Christian Scientists.
When Jesus received word from Mary and Martha that their brother Lazarus was sick, he abode two days still in the place where he was and then said to his disciples, "Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep.
Interpreted
literally and historically a passage of Scripture has no more power to bring peace and health to sick and sinning mortals than has a quotation from Homer's Iliad or Cæsar's Commentaries.
When
we first hear of Christian Science healing, we are apt to receive it with wonder and doubt, and when upon further inquiry we are told that this healing is the result of prayer, our wonder and doubt are little lessened; but when we go still farther and take up the study of Christian Science and find what constitutes true prayer, both wonder and doubt vanish.
These
words from the one hundredth psalm,—"It is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves,"—with the jubilant note of confident rejoicing over the everlasting mercy and goodness of God, whose "truth endureth to all generations," come as a reproof to those who are struggling with that false sense which so insistently claims to be "ourselves;" while echoing down the ages comes Pilate's question, "What is truth?
One
of the most familiar Bible texts, and one whose literal interpretation, or rather misinterpretation, has plunged many a suffering mortal into smoldering resentment toward God and the universe in general, is the passage, "Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
Christian Scientists have noticed, with no little surprise, that The Springfield Union has allowed a doctor of divinity to speak through its columns of Mrs.
"At the annual meeting of our association a collection was taken,—the amount inclosed herewith,—to be applied to the fund of The Christian Science Benevolent Association, as an expression of love and gratitude for the consecrated work of our beloved Leader, Mary Baker Eddy.
A lecture recently delivered in San Diego brought out the fact that Christian Science teaches that the basic truths of Christianity, such as the omnipotence, goodness, love, and help of God, are available to man through prayer to meet the untoward circumstances and vicissitudes of human existence, including sickness.
