Frank H. Leonard, C.S.B.
Member of the Board of Lectureship of The
Mother Church,
The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts
There is nothing in the world today which is so occupying the thought of the people as Christian Science, and there is a vital reason why, regardless of all the misunderstanding and misrepresentation relative to the subject, people should still insist on knowing the truth about it.
Until within a few years, to the average person religion was something which required no thought, no investigation; it was to be accepted simply because this was believed to be the right thing to do, without one's having any well-formed idea as to what it taught; but today, as a result of the increased mental activity that is now apparent in all directions, people are no longer content to accept any teaching as true simply because some one has said that it is true; in fact, more and more the demand is being made that proof shall be given of the truth of every statement made.
People are awakening to the fact that the one great problem in life is that of individual salvation, and the more they think about salvation, the more they are convinced that they want it now, and the less willing they are to wait for it until after they have passed through "the valley of the shadow," with all the mystery and fear and doubt surrounding that passage. Heretofore people have read the Bible; today they are studying it; and the result is an awakening which carries with it the conviction that many things formerly believed to be real, essential, God-created and God-given, are now seen to be but misconceptions relative to God and what He creates, — misconceptions which need to be corrected so that freedom may be obtained from that bondage wherein a mistaken belief has held mankind.
People want to live, they do not want to die, and yet their whole teaching has been that the first breath drawn by an infant is the first step toward death and the grave. The teaching has been universal that life is a brief span of existence given man, wherein he may prepare himself to die so saved from sin that he may find God on the other side of "the valley of the shadow," and dwell with Him eternally in the kingdom of heaven. The cemetery, in this connection and for this reason, has frequently been referred to as "God's acre," thus indicating that God is responsible for death, that it is a part of His plan of salvation, an avenue provided by His infinite wisdom through which man must go in order to reach heaven. This teaching has been almost universal, and has been accepted by all as the truth, in spite of the fact that Christ Jesus said in so many words, "If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death." When one is brought face to face with this statement, it does not take an instant to realize that a serious mistake has been made in placing the responsibility for death upon God, for we all know that to follow the teachings of the Wayshower brings us to God, and in no way whatever shuts us out from participating in any of those good and perfect gifts which our Bible tells us come down from above.
Unconsciously we have all fallen into the error of thinking that eternal life will begin for each of us when our experience here has ended, but thoughtful consideration makes us know that eternal life never began and will never end, that it is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The fact that Life is and is eternal, is positive proof that death is not, and leads us to search the Scriptures that we may find how to turn from death unto life.
It will be argued that this statement of Jesus referred simply to the spiritual life; and this is true, for there is only one Life and that Life is Spirit, God. The work which Christian Science is doing for mankind today is enabling us to eliminate from consciousness the belief that there is any life other than the spiritual and is bringing dominion and power to the one who before was held in bondage, — subject to all things, master of none. When Jesus said, "If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death," the saying he referred to is this: "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father." The works he was doing when he made this statement were these: he was healing the sick, cleansing the lepers, casting out evils, and raising the dead, "by the Spirit of God," — to His glory, and to the liberation of all those who turned to him.
Unless these same works are being accomplished today, we are Christians in name only. To be a Christian means to be a follower of Christ; to be a follower of Christ one must be a doer of the Word, and must bring out all the fruits which Jesus said should be brought out by those who followed him "in spirit and in truth."
It is taught that the healing of the sick without medical agency, as Jesus healed, is miraculous, and that the time for miracles has gone by. We are told that today God's word is destroying sin and saving the sinner just as it did in the early days of the Christian era, and that the only reason Jesus healed the sick as he did when on earth was to convince the Jews, who were a stiff-necked people, that he was the Messiah of promise and the fulfillment of prophecy. Do we not know that never in the history of the world were there so many who need to be convinced that Christ is the Messiah, as at the present time? Shall it be urged that all of the stiff-necked people were Jews who died two thousand years ago? Shall it be urged that we no longer need proof that Christ is the Messiah? Or shall we recognize the error of our former ways, and in humility study the life and teaching of Christ Jesus on earth, so that we may be able to fulfill his promise and show to the doubter and unbeliever of today that he was "the Son of the living God" — the absolute fulfillment of all prophecy and every promise which the Bible holds out to mankind?
There is no way whereby we can demonstrate that God is true, other than by doing His will and manifesting His supremacy in all things. The Bible teaches us that God is "a very present help in trouble." Mankind say that He is in cases of sin, but that if one be sick, he must turn to medicine if he expects to regain his health. There is nothing in the Bible that gives authority for any one to say in what kind of trouble God may be a very present help, nor to say there is a trouble that is beyond God's ability or desire to overcome and destroy; and Christian Science teaches that a man has just as much right to take a sick trouble to God as he has a sin trouble, and just as much right to expect freedom from one as the other.
The general belief is that one must have great faith in Christian Science before any benefit may be derived from treatment by a Christian Science practitioner. This belief is erroneous; all the faith one needs to have in Christian Science at the inception of his desire to be benefited by it, is sufficient faith to find a practitioner and express the desire for treatment. To illustrate the truth of this statement I will relate my own experience when I turned from medicine to Christian Science to find health.
I was born with a supposedly incurable organic disease; had never known a well day in my life; I had taken all kinds of treatment known in those days, and had received no benefit. I had come to the place where the physicians were unanimous in saying that dissolution was at hand. I did not want to die; I wanted to stay here, — to live, and be well and able to do as other boys did. About this time I learned that in Boston, Massachusetts, a body of people calling themselves Christian Scientists were claiming God's word to be as presently efficacious for the destruction of disease as it was when Jesus was on earth; and that they were proving the truth of their statement by healing people who had gone to them for treatment after having been pronounced hopeless and incurable by their physicians. I accepted the suggestion that I try Christian Science, in the hope that it might be of benefit to me, and I went to a Christian Science practitioner for help.
The practitioner, a woman, ushered me into a small room which did duty as an office, and asked me to be seated, she at the same time seating herself in the opposite corner of the room. After being seated, she asked me what seemed to be the trouble with me. I felt as though that question added insult to injury, for to me my suffering was most real and intense, so I told her that the physicians said I had an incurable organic disease, telling her what they said it was. After a few moment's conversation, she said she would treat me. I had not the faintest idea what a Christian Science treatment was, so I was waiting with a good deal of curiosity for her to begin the treatment, when to my surprise she folded her arms and closed her eyes. I watched her for a moment or two, wondering when the treatment would begin, when it dawned on me that this was the treatment. The absurdity of the belief that she could do me any good, sick as I was with an incurable organic disease, without even laying her hands on me, was so apparent to me that I could scarcely avoid the discourtesy of laughing aloud in her face.
In a short time she arose and said, "I will see you tomorrow at the same time." If she had been able to know what I was thinking, she would have known that I thought she wouldn't, for I did not then intend to return for another treatment; on the contrary, my mind was fully made up to return to the use of the tonic our family physician had told me it was as much as my life was worth to go without. This, however, I did not do. The disease with which I was afflicted was of such a nature and had reached so advanced a stage that it was impossible for me to obtain any rest without the use of an opiate, and I fully intended taking my usual dose when I went to bed; but the first thing of which I was conscious, after my head touched the pillow, was the fact that it was broad daylight, and I realized that I had slept the whole night through without any suffering or discomfort.
I had awakened with a sense of hope, strength, vigor, activity, and joy, such as I had never known before in my entire life, and I believe the longest hours I ever spent were those between the time of my awakening and the time set for my next treatment. I continued to go for treatment for a period of about three months, when I felt I was perfectly well. Our family physician, who was an old friend and near neighbor, had known the treatment I was undergoing, and requested the privilege of examining me. The privilege was granted, and at the termination of his examination he said a miracle had been worked for me, for I was as perfect a physical specimen as he had ever examined. That was in March, 1885, and from that day to this Christian Science, as revealed to the world through Mrs. Eddy, has met every diseased condition that has presented itself to me, has destroyed it and left me free.
During all these intervening years I have seen continued evidence that God's word is efficacious in the destruction of all the ills to which flesh is heir. I have seen cancer, tuberculosis, locomotor ataxia, deafness, blindness, paralysis, drunkenness, insanity, and immorality destroyed. I have seen men and women made well morally and physically, just by the inflow of divine Love, as understood and demonstrated in Christian Science, and my continued study of the subject makes me entirely sure that Christian Science, both practically and transcendentally, is the most precious of all the good of which human consciousness may conceive.
It is said that Christian Scientists do not use the Bible; that all they use is "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," written by Mrs. Eddy. No statement could be more untrue, because the disclosure of the spirit of the Word which maketh alive — and that is what Christian Science is — comes only as the result of continuous study of the Bible with the aid of the Christian Science textbook, which is what its title indicates, a "Key to the Scriptures."
Nearly all denominations have their "Bible helps," prepared for the use of the lay members by those presumed to have knowledge of the spiritual teaching contained in the Scriptures. Science and Health is the "Bible help" of the Christian Scientist; it is the book with which the Bible is studied, and it has rent the veil of mystery surrounding the letter of the Word from top to bottom, revealing the spiritual import of the Scriptures, disclosing to us the "holy of holies," wherein God is revealed to us as no longer an unknown God, no longer a God to be ignorantly worshiped, but a God who is Love, — a God who never turns from His children, a Father more tender, more considerate, more compassionate, more loving than human consciousness can conceive.
It is frequently alleged that Christian Science denies God and the Christ; in refutation of this statement, I desire to say that God is referred to over twelve hundred times and Jesus the Christ over eight hundred times in the Christian Science textbook, an average of over three times to every page thereof, and every reference to either God or Christ brings out a more exalted thought than the world has heretofore known. If one will procure a copy of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," written by Mrs. Eddy, and read her definition of God (p. 587) and of Christ (p. 583), he will never question the reverence accorded them in the teachings of Christian Science.
Because Christian Scientists declare that the real man is one with God, this statement has been used as a foundation for the claim that Christian Science is but a restatement of Oriental philosophies, wherein it is taught that man reaches the highest state of existence when he forgets that he has ever lived and is absorbed into Deity. The teachings of Christian Science are absolutely opposed to such an idea. They lead us to think of man as one with God in the sense that the idea is one with the mind that conceives it — no part of the mind, but inseparable from it; and so it is with man, God's idea, His image and likeness! He is inseparable from God, the Mind, the creator which conceived him, but in no sense a component part of God. In no sense is his individuality ever lost, for it is as eternal as the Mind that created him.
Probably nothing has been more misunderstood by people than the statement made by Christian Scientists that sin, disease, and death are not real — in fact, are nothing but false beliefs. When this statement is understood, it stands out in bold relief as honoring God by recognizing in deed as well as word His omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence, — as good, wherein there is neither elemental evil nor a consentive passivity which seems to recognize evil and permit its existence. Christian Science gives us but one standard of measurement, and that standard is God! Whenever, therefore, anything presents itself to a Christian Scientist, immediately he measures it by the standard of perfection which is God, and if it fails to measure up to that standard, it is known to be un-Godlike; and if un-Godlike, not eternal; and if not eternal, not real.
How do we know that sin, disease, and death are not Godlike? how do we know that sin, disease, and death have nothing to do with God; never did have, and never will? Jesus told us so, and very plainly, too. He said he came to do the will of the Father. He also said he came, not to destroy, but to fulfill, and he immediately went to work to heal the sick, cleanse the leper, cast out evil, and raise the dead, "by the Spirit of God." Do we think Jesus knew what he was doing? do we think he told the truth when he said that he came not to destroy but to fulfill? If we believe that he told the truth, then we are forced to admit that he destroyed nothing when he cast those evils out, for not otherwise can the truth of his statement, that he came not to destroy but to fulfill, be upheld.
More than this, let us recall Christ's statement in speaking of a woman who was ill, when he said that Satan had bound her. Did he mean that in one instance Satan had bound a woman because she was bad, and in another instance God would do the binding because a man was good? Does the statement which Jesus made indicate an agreement or partnership between God and Satan, God making some ill because they are good, and Satan making some ill because they are bad? Let us recall the man who was sick of the palsy, to whom Jesus said: "Man, thy sins are forgiven thee;" and the man took up his bed and walked. Again he said, "If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death." Do we believe that statement? Oh, what a call that is to us to follow in the footsteps of our Master; how it says to you and to me: The time now is when ye shall do the works that the Master did; when ye shall take the word of God and heal the sick, cleanse the leper, cast out evil, and raise the dead in the name of Truth.
We shall have every one of these things to do, either here or hereafter, in the self-same way that Jesus did them, whether we want to or not, because there is no way whereby we may enter the kingdom save through him. If he is "the way," and the only way, then you and I can reach that kingdom of God which is within by doing what he did, and as he did, to the accomplishment of our individual salvation in the manner that Jesus indicated.
What about this belief of sin, disease, and death being real? A universal belief is not any more a foundation for fact than is the belief of a single person. To illustrate, let me call your attention to the time of Columbus. You remember that he was treated with scorn and contempt and cast into prison because he stood up before the wise men of his time and said that every one of their scientific deductions, all of their scientific theses, all their scientific experiments to prove that this earth is flat were worthless, because the earth is a sphere. Who was right? Columbus was right, of course, and the wise men were all wrong. What effect did the universal false belief have on the shape of the earth? None whatever! The earth continued to be a sphere just the same. What effect did the false belief have on the people who believed it to be true? So long as the people believed the false belief to be true, they were held within the narrow confines of that belief, and stayed on that little speck of the earth's surface because they feared that if they sailed beyond a certain point they would fall off the edge of the earth on to that something, or nothing on which Atlas did or did not stand when he did or did not hold up the earth.
For ages those who have deemed themselves wise in religious matters have held the world in the grip of the belief that God is either directly or indirectly responsible for sin, disease, and death; and until we break that false belief, until we turn away from it as the prophet Ezekiel implored the Israelites to do when he said, "Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die," we shall continue to sin, we shall continue to be sick, and continue to die. God, as the supposed creator of good and evil, of life and death, sin and disease, is not the God of the Christian Scientists, nor is He the God of the inspired Scriptures which teach that He is the same yesterday, today, and forever, without variableness or shadow of turning. The letters C.S. stand not only for Christian Science, but for common sense as well, and it is common sense, because it is my sense and your sense; it is a sense that belongs to all of us; and Christian Scientists have nothing that is not yours, they are simply putting to use what non-Christian Scientists are letting lie dormant in their thought.
If God is changeless, how could He give life and at the same time give death? When life was existent, what would become of death, and when death was existent what would become of life? If God created them, they must both be as eternal as their creator. How can they both exist eternally when one manifests the absence of the other as certainly as light annihilates darkness?
The Bible tells us that death is the wage of sin. Do we believe it? The Bible does not say that in one case death is the wage of sin and that in another case it is the wage of goodness. It makes the unqualified statement that "the wages of sin is death." If God created death, He must have created sin. We cannot escape this conclusion by saying that He only permits sin; for to permit it He must know it, and how can He know it when the Scriptures tell us that God is of purer eyes than to behold evil and cannot look upon iniquity. If God is of purer eyes than to behold evil and cannot look upon iniquity, if He created death and death is the wage of sin, then it logically follows that God created sin; and as everything He created is good, it further follows logically that sin is not evil but is good, an argument that cannot for an instant be sustained; and our hearts are filled with joy when we know, as Christian Science teaches us, that God has no consciousness of sin.
Life is creative and death destructive, so that God, the primal and only creator, must be Life and not death, and therefore death, measured by the standard of perfection which is God, is not real but is the suppositional absence of or belief in the negation of Life. To what then can the belief in sin and death pertain save to mortal consciousness? This mortal consciousness is to be put off with the old man and his deeds, and as it is put off and is superseded by immortal consciousness, man will be found in the divine image, knowing no sin and death, but forever manifesting eternal Life, being perfect even as his "Father which is in heaven is perfect."
There is a universal belief about death that it is either the gateway to heaven or the entrance to hell. This belief would logically lead us to destroy the innocent infant in order to insure its gaining the kingdom, and the action of the natives of India in casting their babes into the river Ganges would be based on sound logic and good reason! How manifest is the fallacy of the belief that death is ever a friend!
Death is an enemy. Christ Jesus proved its unreality, and overcame it in accordance with the law of God, thus indicating ultimate freedom from death for all mankind. Is this statement impossible of acceptance? It is not an original one by any means, but simply a reiteration of what Paul has said. Paul did not say that we can go on overcoming all things until it comes to death, but that in its presence we are helpless victims. He said the last enemy to be destroyed is death, and in his letter to Timothy he says that Christ Jesus "hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light." Do we believe that Paul understood what he was saying? Do we believe these statements to be true?
We, as Christian Scientists, accept them without modification or qualification, because they are so absolutely in accord with what our Master did and said. True, Christian Scientists have not yet reached the point where they have overcome the universal belief in death, nor have they yet reached the point where they heal every case that is brought to them, but like the prodigal son of the Bible story, they have started on their journey back to their Father's house. They are weary of living in a country far away from God; they are weary of feeding on the husks of words which, no matter how beautiful they may be, fail to bring any proof of their truth. When the infallible Principle of Christian Science is absolutely followed, we shall reach the Father's house, solve all life's problems, and realize in full the meaning of the angelic chorus, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men."
At this point some one might ask, If what you say is true, what are you going to do with the Biblical promise, "Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth?" I shall not change a word of the Bible in order to explain this, but will call your attention to something you all know, namely that the Bible which we read is a translation into English from the original tongues, made by seventy men at the command of King James of England. The Greek verb paideuo, translated by these seventy men into English as "chasten," means to instruct or direct, and nothing else. Liddell and Scott in their Greek Lexicon give as the first meaning of this word, "To rear or bring up children." Joseph Henry Thayer, Professor of New Testament Criticism in the Harvard Divinity School, says that in classic Greek it means "to train children." In his "Memorabilia" Xenophon uses this word in the passage, "He trained both soul and body."
While the preponderance of opinion amongst commentators is that paideuo in New Testament usage means to chasten, Liddell and Scott, Thayer, and Cremer all state that chasten is not the original meaning of this word, but is a later or derived meaning, and Cremer adds the statement that it is an ecclesiastical one. The facts are, that in I Timothy, 1:20, II Timothy, 2:25, and Titus, 2:12, the verb paideuo in the King James version is respectively translated "learn" (literally, be taught), "instruct," "teach." In Hebrews, 12:19, the noun paideutas is rendered by Cremer as instructor or teacher. It seems unreasonable to assume that among contemporary writers upon the same subject, a given word could have been used with such widely different meanings. Of course words change materially from century to century, but this would not explain the variation in the use of the word between the epistle to the Hebrews, written 64 A.D., and the letters to Timothy and Titus, written in 65 and 66 A.D. respectively. When this passage, "Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth," is rendered into English as it is literally written in classic Greek, it would read, "Whom the Lord loveth he instructeth," and it thus becomes another proof of the Christian Science teaching as to the abnormal nature of sin, which Christ destroyed in conformity with the law of God.
In order that there may be sin there must be temptation, and in order that there may be temptation there must be sin, and they both must proceed from the same source. Is this source God or mankind? If it be God, we are lost! If it be mankind, we are saved. Let this question be answered for us by James and John. James writes, "Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: but every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death." John writes, "Whosoever is born of God (and as God is the only creator, none is truly born nor may be unless he is born of God) doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God." Dare we, in the face of James' statement that lust is the origin of sin, and John's statement that "whosoever is born of God . . . cannot sin, because he is born of God," ever again associate the name or nature of God with sin?
Paul says that "God is no respecter of persons." Do we believe this? Most of us will say to ourselves, "Oh yes;" but let us see if we do. So long as we believe sin, disease, and death to be real, just so long do we believe that God, either directly or indirectly, is responsible for them. As we look around us and see one man afflicted (I say it advisedly) with millions of money, another with the direst poverty; one having perfect health, another with ill-health, one with joy unspeakable, and another with misery and woe and despair, — if any of us are having to meet the poverty, the despair, or the ill-health, can we from the bottom of our hearts say we believe that "God is no respecter of persons"? Some one near to us is stricken with a mortal illness, and we kneel and pray that the illness may be taken from the loved one; that the person may live. If this illness is from God, it is good; and why do we pray that he or she may be relieved from it — if it is good? If we believe that God sent the sickness, and yet pray that it be removed, that the afflicted person may live, has not the physician who is attending that patient — if he believes that God sent the disease — just as much right to pray to God, at the same time, that the illness may continue in order that he may live?
Mankind says God is immutable and changeless, but hundreds and millions of times every day men are beseeching the immutable and changeless God to change, change, change; until mankind conceive of God as the very center and circumference of eternal change. So long as we believe God to be responsible for all things, and yet kneel and pray that He may forget His immutability and take away what we do not want and give us what we think we do want, is it not true that if our prayer were suddenly granted we would be frightened beyond measure? Is it logically possible for us to have very much faith in prayer, so long as we are held in the bondage of this belief in a changeable God? If we would take into our consciousness that changeless love, that changeless religion which Jesus the Christ preached, there would be no doubt, no fear; and we would go to God in prayer with the serene confidence, the implicit faith, that He who heareth in secret will reward us openly; which, as the Master taught, is our birthright and heritage.
This is what Christian Science is asking us to do; this is the table that is prepared for us in the presence of our enemies; this is the bread which cometh down from heaven; this is the water of eternal life — it is yours, it is mine. Let us accept the feast that God has put before us; let us recognize the Comforter, the Wayshower, again in our midst; the Comforter which Jesus promised to send when he said it was expedient that he go to his Father. Then there will be no more broken hearts, there will be no more sorrow, no more tears, no more separation, no more sickness, no more suffering, and no more sin, for we shall have entered into the realization that this is the day of the Lord; and with that realization there will come to us peace, — that peace which God has promised us, that peace which may be found only in the straight and narrow way wherein our Master leads us, into the kingdom of God within.
The revelation of Christian Science came to Mrs. Eddy as the result of a lifetime spent in continuous search and desire for the spirit of the Word and the things of God. As a religious reformer she occupies a position unique in the history of the world — unswerving in her trust in the goodness of God, and unquestioning in her obedience to His commands. This calls on her for such meekness, humility, and self-sacrifice, that she never could live such a life were it not for the protecting care of a real, livable, demonstrable religion, wherein she finds immunity from the sufferings of those who turn away from the Christ-concept of God.
Ever since 1866 Mrs. Eddy's life has been devoted to the work of bringing to mankind this revelation of the way of salvation. She has done this with such singleness of purpose, that mankind is awakening to the recognition of her work as inspired, that Christian Science is the spirit of the Word which Jesus portrayed. Christian Scientists do not worship Mrs. Eddy, nor do they in any sense of the word deify her in their thought. The whole teaching of Christian Science leads us to put self under foot; to have no way and no will save God's way and God's will; and Mrs. Eddy asks the world, each one of us, to follow her only so far as she follows Christ. In her following of Christ she has been the instrument whereby the feet of hundreds of thousands have been planted upon the rock of the proved truth of God's promises, and against that rock, in the words of the Master, "the gates of hell shall not prevail." We do love our Leader, and we give her the allegiance and devotion to which her tireless labor in mankind's behalf is entitled.
I have related what Christian Science did for me physically; let me add more. As a boy and young man I heard continually that God was responsible for all things; that suffering and sickness and misery and wretchedness were in some way associated with His great plan of salvation, and in my hours of agony and helplessness I was so overwhelmed with fear of God that I reached a point where I had no belief in Him, and my whole desire was to get away from Him if it were possible, to find something that would shield me from the sickness and misery that I was continually called upon to suffer. I had no God, I had nothing to trust, nothing to love, nothing to look forward to, and I had come to feel that I did not care to hear about God, and church-going had become a burden to me.
Then Christian Science came with the assurance that God is Love, that He has nothing to do with evil; and this teaching took away my disease and my suffering, and took with it my fear, my dread of God. Christian Science came to me, and gave me God, and when I tell you this as my experience, I am telling you the experience of countless thousands all over the globe. Is it any wonder that we love the one who has been so selfless and so faithful in her endeavor that through it God has come to us, that salvation has been brought within our apprehension? We are willingly, joyfully obedient to her every teaching, because it is through her continued labors for over forty years that the mystery of the way of salvation has been removed and the glory of God again been made apparent to mankind.
Respecting the claims of materia medica, we can but ask, If God put drugs on the earth to preserve and save the life of mankind, why did Jesus, who came doing the will of the Father, fail to use them in the healing which he accomplished? Jesus never used anything for the healing of mankind from disease other than the word of God. Here some one may ask, Did not Jesus use material remedies when he put clay and spittle on the blind man's eyes? Now, this case, when understood, is one of the most wonderful lessons in the whole Bible. Do we believe that Jesus thought, when he put the clay on the man's eyes, it would restore his sight? If we do, then we believe this was an instance in which Jesus failed to foreknow what would happen, for according to the story, the clay failed to accomplish anything. Did the blind man see while the clay was on his eyes? No! Not until, in obedience to the command of Jesus, he went to the pool of Siloam and washed off the clay did the blind man see.
Jesus thus taught us that as we cast aside all material remedies, no matter how simple, and go in the way of his appointing, blindly though it may be at first, our obedience will open the eyes that see not, and we shall behold the glory of God and of His Son, the living Christ. This is one of the few places in the Bible where not only the word but its meaning is given: "Go, wash in the pool of Siloam," which means "sent," was the command of Jesus. The man obeyed; and when he had washed, he saw. Manifestly it was not the clay, nor was it the water; it was his obedience to the word of God, as it came to him through Christ Jesus, which made him whole. Instantly our thought goes back to the story of Naaman, the leper who came to Elisha to be healed. The prophet sent word to him that he was to go and wash in the river Jordan seven times. The story intimates that he was angry at this advice, declaring that the waters of his own country were better than the waters of Jordan. He evidently wanted to be healed in his own way; but he was prevailed upon to be obedient to the word of God, as it came to him through the prophet, and he went and bathed in the river Jordan, and came forth every whit whole.
When you and I are willing to be obedient, as were these men, then there will be nothing that we cannot take to the foot of the cross, and leave it there, coming away free and untrammeled, praising God for His wonderful goodness. Let me say this to those desirous of knowing God as Spirit, Principle, Mind: Do not be satisfied with anyone's statement as to what Christian Science teaches, but go to the fountain-head and get knowledge, pure and unadulterated, by careful, prayerful study of your Bible, with the aid of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," every line of which carries healing to its readers.
Christian Science is the demonstration of that great, tender, compassionate love which Jesus Christ manifested to the world, not only in his word, but in his demonstrations of power. Christian Science is the revelation to mankind today that only as we live the religion of love, making its demonstration that of doing unto others as we would be done by, are we showing any conception of that religion, pure and undefiled, which the Bible commands us to demonstrate. Love brings no evil; Love brings no suffering to man; and the understanding of Love, as it is demonstrated in Christian Science, enables a man to reach out to his brother with a tenderness, a sweetness, a sense of consideration which the world, otherwise, knows not of.
Christian Science is the manifestation of that love which respects no person, that knows no relationship save the universal brotherhood, and which brings to mankind the satisfying consciousness that God is Love. In this knowledge of demonstrable religion, Christian Scientists have their satisfaction, their joy, a sense of harmony that can never be disturbed, a consciousness that Love includes all in its omniscience, and leads us, weary and heavy laden, to Calvary, to the cross, where we are freed from our burden in fulfillment of the promise of Him whose word never faileth. Here we find relief from our pain, escape from our sorrow and tears; spiritual regeneration, emergence from self, from the world, the flesh, and the devil, into that everlasting peace which God giveth His beloved children, and toward which Mrs. Eddy, God's messenger to this age, is leading us.
We ask you to investigate, not Christian Scientists, but Christian Science, and see how absolutely it reveals the Godly standard wherein what blesses one blesses all. Every promise shall be fulfilled, and the grand work of Christ, as exemplified in Christian Science, be universally accepted. Then shall His will be done in earth as it is in heaven; then shall we realize that His "is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever;" see the full fruition of Love, have no other God than "our Father which art in heaven," who is everlasting Life, Truth, and Love.
[Published in pamphlet form by The Christian Science Publishing Society, 1908. "God is no respecter of persons" is uttered by Peter and not by Paul in Acts 10:34, but the same idea is expressed in other words in Romans, Ephesians, and Colossians.]