THE TRUE LEAVEN

Archibald McLellan

There appeared in a recent issue of the Outlook an article by President Maclaurin of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, from which we clip the following:—

The spirit of science is essentially critical, and science will therefore always be suspicious of religion or of anything else that is founded merely on tradition or on authority. That, however, is a foundation upon which few modern men who take things seriously profess to place their faith. They may admit that tradition and authority have their value, but they see clearly that the real foundation must be elsewhere. And so it has come about, almost within a generation, that war has given place to a truce, and men are more ready to discuss the similarities between science and religion than to dispute over their differences. This change has been coincident with an unexpected broadening in the popular view of the nature of religion, and a corresponding clarification of men's ideas as to the sphere of science.

It will be noted that the distinguished writer has set this "unexpected broadening in the popular view of the nature of religion" as having taken place "almost within a generation," which is practically the time that has elapsed since Mrs. Eddy's discovery and promulgation of Christian Science. To the caviler this will appear but a mere coincidence in dates, but to thoughtful men, those who are accustomed to deal with great problems from the broad view-point of cause and effect, the relative significance of this change of thought can but be apparent—the true leaven has still its ancient power.

In the Preface to Science and Health (p. vii) Mrs. Eddy writes: "The time for thinkers has come. Truth, independent of doctrines and time-honored systems, knocks at the portal of humanity. Contentment with the past and the cold conventionality of materialism are crumbling away. Ignorance of God is no longer the stepping-stone to faith." She was a brave thinker, with the courage of her convictions, who dared to throw down the gantlet to the "time-honored systems" of both religion and science in the publication of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," and that the seed thus sown has within a generation borne a mighty fruitage, cannot be gainsaid.

The fact that a very large percentage of the membership of the Church of Christ, Scientist, has come from the ranks of the orthodox churches is often commented on, but to those who have found in Christian Science the undivided garment of Christ, Truth, salvation from sickness as well as sin through "the healing of the seamless dress," who have proved for themselves, through the study and application of the teachings of Christian Science, the omnipotence and ever-presence of God, divine Truth, Life, and Love, the explanation of why they have "come out from among them" is simple and convincing; it is because they have found in Christian Science that "vitality of spiritual power by which material sense is made the servant of Science and religion becomes Christlike" (Science and Health, p. 146).

It is this "vitality of spiritual power," operating with ever-increasing energy and in constantly widening circles, that has been revolutionizing, turning and overturning, popular thought, so long held down to the belief that Christianity and science were as widely separated as the poles; and that this is being more and more conceded is evidenced in the attitude of the secular press. Speaking editorially, in December last, of Mrs. Eddy's work, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch said: "It has profoundly influenced religious thought and has modified medical science and practice." At the same time The Springfield (Mass.) Union said: "It [Christian Science] has unquestionably been a force to influence thought and religious institution, and its effect has been felt far beyond the membership of the Christian Science organization;" also, "In the element referred to as 'healing,' Mrs. Eddy seems to have touched a spring that is giving religion a new impulse in modern life."

These opinions are fully concurred in by many others who have noticed the effect which "has been felt far beyond the membership of the Christian Science organization," and while there are yet those who are not ready to acknowledge, or are unable to discern, that in giving to the world this new-old teaching Mrs. Eddy has reestablished primitive Christianity, has again made available the long-desired Christ-healing, we know that in Christian Science there has been introduced into the mass of time-honored doctrines the leaven which shall not cease its workings until the whole is leavened.

Archibald McLellan.

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