The attitude of certain of the local ministers of the...

E. A. F.

Dayton (O.) News

The attitude of certain of the local ministers of the orthodox persuasion toward Christian Science as exhibited on numerous occasions of late, both in sermons and published criticisms, has increasingly impressed me, first, with its unfairness toward the members of the Christian Science Church, who are also cautioned by their Leader to follow her only as the she follows Christ. yet not an existing religious sect is so ridiculed and denounced as Christian Science is to-day. For my part, I am at a loss to know what they have done to deserve such unkind and unchristian treatment. At the worst they are peaceable and law-abiding citizens, never even attempting to proselyte from other faiths; at the best they are a force for good, positive and active, even though some of their tenets without question are at variance with those of the orthodox church ; second, that the attitude of the ministers and laymen of likemindedness is defeating the object sought to be accomplished, namely, as I suppose, wholly against having the new sect and to caution church members against having anything to do with it, and perhaps, particularly, to warn them against taking up with Christian Science healing, even as a last resort, all other means having failed.

As I said my former article, I am by no means a Christian Scientist, for there is much in the doctrine as presented in Science and Health that I am not ready to accept. ... I believe that Christian Science presents some truth, perhaps long-lost and almost forgotten by the Christian church, of which that same church stands in dire need to-day, and that this truth does answer the heart-longings of many who have sought for peace in the orthodox way and found it not.

Theirs is gospel of supreme trust and confidence in God, the divine Principle, the only, force in all the universe. Their trust is alone in the eternal verities, Truth, Life, and Love, all of which they declare God to be, and all else temporal and unreal. They overcome evil with good, and certainly the result is a fruitage of health, harmony, and happiness and all sense of fear is cast out of thousands of minds. And why not? Is not God Love?

Possibly I am not capable of thinking the matter out very far, but it does not seem unreasonable to me, nor yet so very heterodoxical, to believe that as God is Spirit, we, made in His likeness, in our real selves must be spiritual too; that we may, if we will, be controlled not by the things which are temporal, but by the things which are eternal, and that we may walk with God in spiritual life here, our lives blending with the divine Life as we more nearly, and thus more naturally, approach the "perfect day."

Is it not true the most of people are laying far too much stress on the temporal and material and too little on the spiritual, although it is only the latter things which abide? The mind "which was also in Christ Jesus," and which we are admonished to be partakers of, is surely spiritual, since only in can we approach the Father. It is true that Christian Scientists lay much stress upon the healing of bodily infirmities, and yet that, it seems to me, should be the natural result and outgrowth of the life that is lived in harmony with God. Already there are thousands of people in this country who rely wholly on Christian Science instead of the medical profession for healing, but first and best would the Christian Scientist cast out the human consciousness of fear and seek for himself and others a spiritual consciousness which, in proportion as it is realized, lifts one out of the mortal and material plane into oneness with God; in its full realization overcoming what we know as sickness, sin, and finally even death itself.

Now these are in brief some of the things which appeal to me in Christian Science, my convictions having been brought about partly by means of some of the scholarly articles by Christian Science writers I have been privileged to read, and by the "signs following," as they express it, not to speak of personal benefits received. Isn't there something in all this that orthodox Christians have not yet laid hold of that is nevertheless worth their while? Isn't there anything here that even the preachers can learn from this doctrine so many of them affect to despise, but which ever exalts the spiritual in man and as far as possible ignores—denies, if you please—the mortal and temporal? At any rate this spiritual idea is working out to the betterment of thousands of lives, bringing peace and harmony into them and a new thought of God as truly All-in-all. I know no class of believers ever so ready to tell what God has done for them, and almost every one of them has definite benefits, both spiritual and physical, to talk about, and they never question either God's love or His power.

Surely it must be plain that this is not intended as a defense of Christian Science. In a way it is a plea for fair treatment of the new cult and its followers, but much more than that, it is a plea for a careful study on the part of the leaders of orthodox thought of the teachings of Christian Science, not primarily to discover its weak points nor to see how far it has departed from the conventional orthodox creeds, but to know the truth it contains which may contribute to the betterment of humanity and the "healing of the nations."

Is to be presumed that the full and final revelation of all truth is in possession of and actively employed by the members of the orthodox church? Even if we have it all, we are so far from its full acceptance that many of us are bound hand and foot—yea, and body and soul—to the things of earth. Let us, therefore, seek to obtain somewhat of the spiritual point of view of the Christian Scientist, whose thought centers on the declaration that "Spirit is the real and eternal ; matter is the unreal and temporal" (Science and Health, p. 468).

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