The idea that Christianity is good for the body as well as the soul of man has been relegated to the background, and a great part of the church has contented itself with an expression of belief that the age of miracles had passed and explained the statements made to Christ's disciples about the ability to heal diseases as being confined to those early days, or else maintained that the spiritual healing was the most important work.
When our critic talks of Christian Scientists having "the audacity" to treat cases the "symptoms of which they do not know," he is forgetting the interesting fact that there has hardly ever been a case of sickness healed in Christian Science, after the failure of the medical profession, the effect of which has not been belittled by the statement that the original diagnosis was a mistaken one.
It is to be regretted that a Christian clergyman with a reputation such as that enjoyed by this critic of Christian Science should deem it necessary, in his endeavor to build up his own conception of the Scriptures, to attempt to discredit other Christian beliefs.
The lawyer quoted in yesterday's Eagle says: "It is the duty of the community to prohibit the practice of medicine or healing by Christian Scientists and by all persons who are not properly qualified according to the common understanding.
There
is a negative holding-on, prompted by human will and self-interest, which we are very prone to mistake for the positive grasp, born of spiritual understanding and insight.
Several
years ago a friend made the remark that it would be very tiresome and monotonous if people were all good, all alike, as they would have to be if they believed in Christian Science.
It
is well known to the student of Christian Science that individual thought expands to the fuller and higher meanings of the terms employed in expressing the truth, as the study of the Bible and the Christian Science textbook is earnestly pursued.
[During the past few years the governor of Massachusetts has annually issued a proclamation calling upon the people to assemble in their churches for the observance of Lincoln Day, and because of this The Mother Church and the branch churches in this state have each year held an appropriate service.