The little "honest confession of the soul," "Our Debt to Christian Science," which I took the liberty to make some time ago in the Westminster, a Presbyterian weekly published in Philadelphia, it is needless to say has called forth all kinds of criticism and comment. In at least six periodicals I have noticed the article reprinted in full, either with editorial words of warning or expressions of great satisfaction and delight. Some have cried out, ecclesiastically speaking, "Man overboard!" Some of my dearest ministerial friends have written wondering why I was so ignorant; others why so injudicious. The attitude of the editor of the Westminster was very clearly stated in his caption to the article and his after-comments. Here it is in a sentence: "Christian Science is nonsense; and we do not believe in it enough to burden the believing capacity of an idiotic mosquito."

Mrs. Eddy gave one of her sweetest love-messages in regard to this severe criticism upon herself and her work. In a little personal note to the writer, not a drop of anger was expressed, but only love abounding toward those who criticised so cruelly and wrote so contemptuously about that which is to thousands the dearest message of heaven that ever came to their hearts.

I am very glad indeed to express my own reason for gratitude for what Christian Science is doing; for he is not a truth-lover who would not be willing to proclaim upon the house-top the honest convictions of his heart. I do most sincerely feel that the spirit of the message of Christian Science is that which ever has been dearest to the heart of Christendom at the moments of its deepest awakening; and is truly naught else than the heavenly-anointed message of Jesus. It is a living consciousness, not a mere theoretical assent to the great cardinal truth of all religion, that "God is All and in all," and that in Him there can be no darkness at all. It is the awakening of the conviction in our hearts, by the witness of the Spirit, that "God is Love:" and that in Him there never has been, nor ever can be a problem in human life that the working out of this love will not solve. It is a conviction that the present working out of this love in the hearts of the believers is for the great purpose of forgiving all our sins and healing all our diseases. God's great purpose from the foundation of the world is the bringing forth of the sinless, sickless, and deathless man. and to show that there is no more reason for a man being sick than for being a sinner. The whole creation groaneth and travaileth for the bringing forth of just such sons of God as is so clearly expressed in Christ Jesus. This consummation so devoutly to be wished is not some far-off divine event toward which the whole creation moves, but is potentially present now, and is actually present to every one that believeth. The "tree of life" is on both sides of the stream of time—here and in what men call the after-here. The great final message of the Spirit is, "Come,"—enter into the fulness of Him that brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, which is hid as good news from many, on account of the ecclesiastical bushel we have placed over it.

However imperfectly it may have done so, Christian Science is most honestly endeavoring to recover this primitive faith of Christendom, once for all delivered to the saints; and is expressing the same in terms of the "divine immanence" which Professor Bowne says is "the greatest discovery of the century." It is a most honest attempt to express Christ's message in such thought terms as to revitalize the ecclesiastically devitalized faith in Jesus.

The fact is, veil it as the world will, thousands within the church (and many of these its very rarest souls) are finding the spirit of the message like a "lost chord" to their hearts, without feeling the need of leaving their churches because they have found it such, any more than the Church of England has gone over to the Salvation Army ranks simply because the work of General Booth has become almost officially recognized as one of the greatest influences of the century to bring us back to an experimental knowledge of the real saving power of Jesus.

The following incidents taken almost at random from more than a hundred that have personally come under my immediate observation in the last year, will illustrate this. The first is that of a letter received a few weeks ago. It is from a son of a man who was one of the most godly I ever met. For years the father was a member of the session of his church—the Paul for power and the John for love in it. When he was called up higher, the mantle very largely fell upon his son, who has for years been a prominent officer in our church. He can perhaps be truly said to be a leading officer, as well as the leading merchant of the place. Here is the letter in part which he so unexpectedly writes:—

"I wish to congratulate you on the most wonderful article published in The Christian Science Journal of March, 1906 [republished from the Westminster], on "Our Debt to Christian Science." I want to say you have hit the nail square on the head, and have driven it in full length with one blow. It caused me to secure Science and Health and read it through. I say the teachings are most beautiful; and more so from the fact that they are so truthful. When I was in Chicago the first of the month, I attended the meeting of First Church. There were fully fifteen hundred people present, and I was deeply impressed with them. I have had your article printed in both our city papers.

Another case that comes to me just now, is that of a friend who was one of the leading educators of his State. He was given the highest honors in public school work the State could confer. He is recognized as a man of "fine sanity" and good common sense. He is an honored elder in one of the strongest Presbyterian churches in the Middle West. Science and Health is his daily companion. Outside of the Bible he says he gets from it far more than from any other book.

Another case is that of a friend equally prominent in public school circles in one of the largest cities of the land. He is a member of the official board in one of the strongest Methodist churches. He is indeed the member of it. He is also superintendent of the Sunday School. and teacher of a very large Bible class. Science and Health is also his constant companion. He is saturated with the message of it. This he pours forth every Sabbath in his teaching—not the letter, but the spirit of it. Those under him feel that they have never had such a message of joy and power, although none of them know from whence it comes; for it is simply given "with the label off," which is the best way to give any great heart truth. Though truth comes through men, it always, when it comes most clearly, makes the messenger feel it is not of men, and demands no rights to that which is "free grace and dying love" to a world to be redeemed by the life and death of Jesus.

Once more, if it may be allowed. Just the other day, the president for years of the Board of Trustees in one of our very best churches told me that he reads daily from the text-book and never in all the years has there come such a flood of light on the real message of Jesus. He feels that it is the spirit of the message universal; and loves to stay in his church and help give the larger interpretation of it.

Science and Health is read over and over by many a godly minister, and the essence of Christian Science is really preached from every live pulpit. There is no use denying it. Mr. Bryan, when referring to Socialism in his recent speech in Madison Square Garden, heard some one cry out, "Hurrah for Socialism!" His reply at once was: "I have no objection to a man expressing himself in favor of Socialism, because the Socialist as a rule is an honest man. I believe he is a mistaken man; but you must meet him with argument, not abuse."

Much more truly must the Church thus meet Christian Science. I am frank to say I scarcely ever speak to a minister about the matter, that he is not filled with wrath. The tirades against the cult from the pulpit are the saddest and most senseless things one can witness. How different from the spirit of Jesus. When the disciples saw devils being cast out by men that followed them not, they wanted at once to have the whole matter stopped. Then came from the great heart of the Lord: "Forbid him not: for there is no man which shall do a miracle in my name, that can lightly speak evil of me. For he that is not against us is on our part." Christian Scientists certainl do work miracles, and cast out devils, and do it in the name of Christ.

The religious press almost without exception seems to hate anything that smells or smatters of Christian Science, as Satan hates the saints. As Mr. Bryan said of Socialism, much more truly can it be said, must it be said of Christian Science: "No one should have any objection to any man speaking out for Christian Science, for Christian Scientists, as all the world knows, if it is not creedmad, are good people, some of the best of people—and most of them vastly better people than they were before they became members of this new faith. The Church may feel that they are mistaken people; but if so they are to be met not in anger, but in argument." When anger begins, argument ends. He who resorts to abuse confesses thereby that he has reached the beginning of the end of his cause, and the final downfall is not far off. If Christian Science is another "heresy," then it should, in the spirit of the largest wisdom and the deepest love, be met as such. If it is a "heresy," will it not be to Christendom what every heresy always has been,—the voice of God saying to us, "Here, my child, is something you have eliminated or overlooked in the working out of the full-orbed message of Jesus."

Surely one cannot help but see in the whole movement, and the way it grips the hearts of the best of men and women and gives them a new quiver of the heavenly life, that it is like some "Old Mortality" chiseling off the overgrowths of the centuries which were hidden from the view of the Church, that other half of the full-orbed truth which is the key and the core of heaven's message to us—the message from Him who healeth all our diseases.

I am not ashamed to say here want I wrote to Mrs. Eddy; that as a Christian minister I wanted to express my most sincere gratitude for what she has been the means of doing through God's proven presence, to lead a great multitude that no man can number into a more living realization of the priceless preciousness of an experienced knowledge of Jesus Christ, and make them feel he came to show us that there is no more reason for a man being sick, than there is for his being a sinner; and that the sinless, the sickless, the deathless life is the gift of God, to be had by all for the taking,—the longed-for possession to be had by all that fully believe it.