John R. Carr, M.D., C.S., of Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania
Member of the Board of Lectureship of The
Mother Church,
The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts
The subjoined lecture, entitled "Christian Science: The Science of Christian Healing," was delivered in various Churches of Christ, Scientist, in Chicago and vicinity during the current year by Dr. John R. Carr, C.S., of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: member of the Board of Lectureship of The Mother Church, The First of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts. The lecture is reprinted from a previous issue of the Leader.
Christian Science, with its scientifically Christian system of Mind-healing as taught and practiced originally by Christ Jesus, and in this age by Mary Baker Eddy, is a subject of supreme importance and profound significance to the whole world. It should be of paramount interest to everyone. It deserves careful study and right practice because of the fact that it offers to those who understand its Science and practice its Christianity, good, all good and only good, that all-good which the all-good God lovingly and freely bestows upon man and the universe here and now.
Christian Science is a subject which today is engaging the attention and interest of many thinking people the world over — a subject which is destined to gain the ear of humanity more and more, until, in the fullness of time and in God's own way, it shall have led the enslaved human mind out of its supposititiously self-created and self-imposed dream of mortality, the dark error of its own mental Egypt, into the promised land of spiritual understanding, into heaven itself, where, as stated on page 227 of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, "fetters fall and the rights of man are fully known and acknowledged."
Christian Science is a Science, a philosophy, and a religion, a threefold mode of thought whereby Truth comes to the understanding. Through Christian Science, thought is repented, reformed, regenerated, purified, and spiritualized — the human yielding to the divine; and, through baptism or the submergence of the human in the divine, consciousness is exalted to the high level of spiritual understanding. Christian Science is "The Way," lighting the mental path from the low, base level of material thinking to the mountain height of spiritual transfiguration, spiritual illumination, resurrection, and ascension. It is more than a scientific experiment, a philosophical abstraction, or a religious ritual; it is a conduct of life, a method of living, a plan of salvation through right thinking, whereby thought is led out of the erroneous beliefs of sin, disease, and death into the light and liberty of spiritual knowing or true being. Christian Science is universal in its scope and application. It is applicable to every possible human situation, condition, or circumstance, and, correctly understood and rightly applied, meets and solves every possible human equation or problem. It is practical in its demonstration and provable in its Science. It is based upon infinite, divine, impartial, and universal Principle, which must be understood and demonstrated. It has definite rules which must be intelligently and correctly applied; and the result of the application of the Principle according to the rule is proof, namely, the casting out of devils, all evil, false beliefs, with the healing of the false sense of sin, sickness, disease, and death.
Christian Science, properly presented and rightly understood, is a "feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined." Christian Science bids all to this "feast of fat things" and "wines on the lees" as it spreads a table of Truth and Love for those hungering and thirsting after righteousness. At this table of divine Science the bread of Truth and the wine of Love are freely shared. As interpreted in Christian Science, the breaking of bread and the pouring of wine symbolize the teaching and preaching of absolute, spiritual truth — the truth of being, the great truth of spiritual being. This "bread indeed came down from heaven" (Science and Health, p. 33). This is the wine which is "the inspiration of Love, the draught our Master drank and commended to his followers" (ibid., p. 35). It is of this truth that Jesus spake when he said, "If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." This is the age-old yet ever new truth which has been discovered and founded in this age by Mary Baker Eddy. This truth is, today, teaching and preaching the gospel, the gospel of the kingdom, the kingdom of heaven, of God, Mind, at hand and in individual spiritual consciousness. This gospel, today as of old, does "heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils."
To be scientific, a system of healing or of teaching must possess three fundamentals or prerequisites; namely: first, principle; second, rule; third, proof. Christian Science meets fully these requirements, as the following quotations from the Christian Science textbook reveal: "The Principle of divine metaphysics is God; the practice of divine metaphysics is the utilization of the power of Truth over error; its rules demonstrate its Science" (p. 111); and, "Science will declare God aright, and Christianity will demonstrate this declaration and its divine Principle, making mankind better physically, morally, and spiritually" (p. 466).
Throughout the ages there has been going on in human experience a struggle — a ceaseless, relentless, never-ending struggle — and the end is not yet. This struggle is the action and reaction of the so-called forces of nature, a constant and continuous agitation of the so-called vital processes. As manifested in its various aspects, this agitation or commotion has been called "the struggle for existence," "the survival of the fittest," "natural selection," "organic evolution," the common characteristic being the struggle or effort on the part of the so-called living thing to gain and maintain a basis upon which to stand, a point from which to start, and a goal toward which to go. It is indeed an effort or urge on the part of humanity to find or to find out life, truth, intelligence, substance — what it is and where it is.
This search for God, good, this quest for truth, this struggle for existence, has engaged the attention of thinkers through the ages. Natural scientists, philosophers, poets, and wise men have labored long and well to answer life's problems. No one can doubt or question the high purpose, the sincere desire, the unselfish effort of these seekers for truth. Certain it is that in humanity's search for health and cure there has been no lack of honest and sincere effort. I would be an ingrate indeed, untrue to facts and to my highest sense of right and justice, did I not take advantage of this opportunity to express publicly my appreciation of and esteem for the noble lives and labors of the many splendid men and women engaged in the practice of medicine and surgery. It has been my opportunity and privilege to be associated with many such. I know something of their ideals, their hopes, hardships, struggles, disappointments, and despair; and I say without fear of contradiction that the practice of medicine has enlisted, as a class, a high type of professional man and woman. These high-minded practitioners are busily engaged in a noble effort to help and heal their fellow man. In the item of unselfish service and devotion to duty all might learn valuable lessons from the physicians of the better sort. I have found them, for the most part, true and tried friends, good citizens, splendid neighbors, lovers and servers of their brother man.
In spite of the high purpose and noble effort of the matter-physician, health and cure have not been vouchsafed to the human race. From a "great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered," the cry goes up: "Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?" The handwriting on the wall of the temple of Aesculapius, pagan god of medicine, is the same as that on the wall of the palace of Belshazzar, heathen king of Babylon! "And this is the writing that is written, MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN. This is the interpretation of the thing: MENE; God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it. TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting."
Mind, not matter, is medicine. Mrs. Eddy states this on page 142 of the textbook. She writes: "If Mind was first and self-existent, then Mind, not matter, must have been the first medicine. God being All-in-all, He made medicine; but that medicine was Mind." Health is a spiritually-mental state, not a physiological nor an anatomical one. Healing is a metaphysical or divinely-mental process, not a physical nor a pathological one. It is brought about by the action of impersonal, impartial, universal Principle, divine Mind, Love, operating through spiritual law, to the end of proving the presence, power, might, majesty, dominion, victory, supremacy, even the allness of God, good, Mind, Love.
It is scientifically and Christianly true that God, Mind, Spirit, cares for His children. It is true that Love's care is manifested in the forgiveness of sin and in the healing of disease, sickness, and death. Jesus, the master Physician, was no wonder-worker. He did not perform miracles in the generally accepted meaning of the term — that of law infraction. Jesus was a Scientist in the most Christianly scientific interpretation of the word "Science." On page 313 of the textbook Mrs. Eddy writes of him, "Jesus of Nazareth was the most scientific man that ever trod the globe." He understood fully and demonstrated completely the Christ, Truth. He knew the truth and practiced it, proving it to be what Mrs. Eddy defines Christian Science to be (Rudimental Divine Science, p. 1): "the law of God, the law of good, interpreting and demonstrating the divine Principle and rule of universal harmony."
Medicine practiced materially is not an exact or true science. The best that can be said of material medicine is that it is a system of man-made theories, opinions, hypotheses, conjectures, based upon observation, experimentation, correlation. It is empirical in essence and nature, and based upon the testimony of the faulty senses. In support of this view I quote the following medical authority: "The art of medicine . . . will never be wholly within the control of pure science" (Dr. David Riesman, Professor of Medical History, University of Pennsylvania, in "Medicine in Modern Society," 1938, p. 13).
The conscientious physician admits the dilemma in which he finds himself. Many admit the fact that medical practice has not proved effectual in the treatment of disease, sickness, and death. They see and acknowledge the inadequacy of material methods of healing, and not a few are at their wits end — even in utter despair.
Illustrative of the situation I quote Doctor Galdston, Information Director, New York Academy of Medicine: "Science has left mankind spiritually bankrupt, because at rock bottom science is amoral, not concerned with good, the true. Unless it mends its faults it will, like blind Samson, bring down the palace upon itself, to its own destruction and the irreparable hurt of humanity." A noted surgeon of my adopted city was an invalid for many years. He taught and lectured from a wheel chair to which he was confined. At his last public appearance in Philadelphia he was rolled to the banquet table, a testimonial dinner, and made the following farewell statement: "Looking back over years of service, I cannot understand how a medical man can be vain when he sees anguish abroad and the medical man forced to stand aside, impotent, hopeless, and useless."
As we look about we see a world upset, disturbed, confused. The physical world is lashed and torn by wind and wave; while storm, drought, flood, famine, and pestilence stalk abroad. The social, political, economic, and industrial world is rent asunder by strife, strikes, war and the rumor of war. Materialism has not stood the test, but has given way and cracked under its own strain. Academic intellectualism has become a babel of tongues. Nations, kingdoms, and governments rise and fall with armies on the march and armaments on the increase. The moral world is unstable and unsteady. Old and tried standards have been thrown overboard as new and questionable ones are set up. The human mind has, in belief, an insatiable appetite for new and strange sensations. In an effort to forget itself, that is, by abandonment, this mind draws new and wider circles of indulgence, thereby entangling itself in more subtle and degrading webs of illusion and delusion. In an attempt to steer among the "Scylla and Charybdis" of material sense, the pains and pleasures of the senses, this prodigal mind strays into the far country of deluded sense, wastes its substance in riotous living, spends all, and comes to grief and want. Feeding on the "husks that the swine did eat," the wayward prodigal is ultimately and inevitably wrecked on the shifting sands of sin and sensuality. The insentient human body, ignorant and innocent victim of the attacks of the would-be murderer, mortal mind, is either capsized and sunk in the mire of suffering, sinning beliefs, or, floating aimlessly on the currents of fleeting, whimsical fancies, is cast adrift, a derelict upon the barren and wasted shore of a distorted and perverted sense.
Outside the realm and reign of divine Science, that is, in the realm and reign of material sense, pandemonium seems to run to its own ruin; "for to be carnally minded is death."
Mrs. Eddy goes at once and for all time to the very heart of the problem. She lays bare the issue and prescribes the remedy. In clear, accurate, and unmistakable terms she states the two sides of the proposition: first, what life, truth, intelligence, substance are not; secondly, what they are. In that remarkable passage called "the scientific statement of being," appearing on page 468 of the textbook, Mrs. Eddy makes the most accurate statement of the most scientific discovery ever brought to humanity. It is surpassed by none in the history of scientific discovery. It deserves to be rated with the religious sayings of the spiritual seer, John, who said, "God is love," and that of Jesus, who said, "God is a Spirit."
"The scientific statement of being" is a correct statement of that which is, and an equally true statement of that which seems to be but is not. It states the Science of being and the error of sense, the fact of being and the fable of seeming. It presents reality, Spirit, Mind, Truth, in scientific terms, together with the statement of the unreality of human belief, the error of the ages, the error that "deceiveth the whole world." As it appears in the textbook it reads: "There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all. Spirit is immortal Truth; matter is mortal error. Spirit is the real and eternal; matter is the unreal and temporal. Spirit is God, and man is His image and likeness. Therefore man is not material; he is spiritual."
This declaration presents the truth and the whole truth, beyond which it is impossible to go. It is entire, complete, and adequate for today and for all time. It is the scientific statement of Truth — the truth about God, man, and the universe — together with a statement of the unreality of human belief, the lie about creation.
"The scientific statement of being" is radical and revolutionary in its every statement, breaking thoroughly with the accepted theories regarding life, truth, intelligence, substance as existent in or dependent upon matter. When from the standpoint of spiritual understanding it was declared that matter is neither living, true, intelligent, nor substantial, our Leader parted company with the systems of her time and revealed the Science of Mind or Spirit. Since this declaration was made slightly over a half-century ago, radical and fundamental changes have taken place in the world's view regarding life, truth, intelligence, and substance. New views are advanced, tending away from the false concepts of matter as substance to the spiritual concept of Life, Truth, intelligence, substance. This much-to-be-desired change in human thinking is due to the leavening effect of Truth — the truth of being, revealed in Christian Science.
In the Manual of The Mother Church, written by Mary Baker Eddy, page 17, one reads: "At a meeting of the Christian Scientist Association, April 12, 1879, on motion of Mrs. Eddy, it was voted, — To organize a church designed to commemorate the word and works of our Master, which should reinstate primitive Christianity and its lost element of healing."
The "lost element of healing," healing through spiritual law or divine power, lost to the church, has been rediscovered and reinstated in Christian Science. This Science offers to a sick and sinning world a system of healing which is scientific, Christian, absolute, exact, full, and final; a system which, when applied according to the Science stated in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, has healed, is healing, and will continue to heal, in an ever-increasing manner, every ill "that flesh is heir to."
The last chapter in this book is entitled "Fruitage." It contains one hundred pages devoted exclusively to testimonies of healing brought about through the study of Science and Health. Authenticated testimonies of healing appear in each issue of the Christian Science Sentinel, The Christian Science Journal, The Herald of Christian Science in foreign languages. At the Wednesday church meetings held over the world, testimonies are given by grateful and appreciative witnesses to the power of Truth. Of special interest and value is the collection of verified cases of healing in the personal experience of Mrs. Eddy, collected and published in the Historical and Biographical Papers: Sketches from the Life of Mary Baker Eddy and the History of Christian Science, Second Series, chapters VII and VIII, published by The Christian Science Publishing Society, in Boston, Massachusetts. In these the investigator will find the entire field of medicine, surgery, pathology, and therapeutics covered with verified cases of healing of every type of disease, sin and death included. No other system offers such fruitage.
The Principle, rule, and proof of this Christianly scientific system of medicine are set forth in the writings of Mrs. Eddy, which, together with the King James Version of the Bible, form the texts of Christian Science. Christian Science healing is a system of therapeutics identical with that taught and practiced by Christ Jesus.
In an interview Jesus held with his disciples, recorded in Matthew 16, the question arose concerning the healings wrought by the Master. Jesus made inquiry, "Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?" and "Whom say ye that I am?" Simon Peter replied: "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God," which answer is interpreted by Mrs. Eddy on page 137 of Science and Health to mean: "The Messiah is what thou hast declared, — Christ, the spirit of God, of Truth, Life, and Love, which heals mentally." The Master not only accepted Simon's explanation as satisfactory, but showed approbation by saying: "Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against if." This Peter, or rock, refers not to the personal, corporeal man, Simon Bar-jona, but rather to the spiritual understanding of Truth and Love. It is this understanding of divine Science, the Science of God, man, and the universe as divine Principle and spiritual idea, that cast out and casts out the errors of false belief manifested as sin, disease, and death.
Simon Peter presented in sharp contrast conflicting mental states, the so-called "pairs of opposites" of human thinking. At one time we find him denying the Master, cutting off the ear of the servant of the high priest, and first to suggest to the bewildered disciples that they go back to the old, material way of thinking and living, now the Master had left them. At another time we find him filled with the Holy Ghost, divine Science, teaching and preaching and healing in the name of Christ, Truth. Peter attained, at times, the height of spiritual understanding. This understanding was the rock or firm foundation upon which was to be founded the church for the healing of sin, sickness, disease, and death.
The idea of building on the firm foundation of spiritual understanding is illustrated in Matthew 7:24-27, and in Luke 6:47-49. Here is portrayed the value of building life's prospects and hopes upon the rock of spiritual understanding rather than upon the shifting sands of mortal belief. He who builds on a matter basis is destined to fall — "and it fell: and great was the fall of it;" while he who builds upon the rock, Christ, Truth, sets a firm foundation and the line to the plummet. "The end of that man is peace."
The Bible story contrasting the house or consciousness built on the sands of belief with the one founded upon the rock further illustrates the necessity of practicing one's precepts, in other words, the necessity of living Science in the daily life. It is Science to do what one knows as well as to know what one does. Knowing and doing are but phases of the same fact in Science, while professing and not doing is a serious offense. Our Leader speaks directly on this issue. She says (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 293): "Truth talked and not lived, rolls on the human heart a stone; consigns sensibility to the charnel-house of sensuality, ease, self love, self-justification, there to moulder and rot."
Leading medical authorities are coming to the conclusion that the present great need — even dire necessity — in the treatment of disease is a system or method other than and superior to any so far evolved by the mind of man. These physicians have exhausted material methods with uncertain and unsatisfactory results, and, in doubt, look to a new and better therapy; but they know not where or what. Many of these doubting Thomases are, to be sure, being deflected into the byways of so called human metaphysics, psychological medicine, new-thought, unity, mental science, psychoanalysis, hypnotism, theosophy, spiritualism, none of which have any part in or direct similarity to the purely spiritual method of Christian Science. I take great satisfaction in quoting, on this point, the late Dr. William Osler, my teacher in medicine and my friend, Professor of Medicine at the Johns Hopkins Medical School; physician-in-chief at the Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland; subsequently Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford University, England. In an article entitled "The Faith that Heals," in the British Medical Journal, June 18, 1910, he writes: "I feel our attitude as a profession should not be hostile. A group of active, earnest, capable young men are at work on the problem. The angel of Bethesda is at the pool — it behooves us to jump in." By way of answer to the learned doctor's admonition that we "jump in," it may be said that Christian Science has not only entered the pool and stirred it, but has baptized with water and with spirit the "great multitude . . . waiting for the moving of the water," and is saying with the authority of spiritual understanding, "Rise, take up thy bed, and walk." Christian Science is doing these wonderful works through spiritual power, the power of Mind, the power of God.
I shall at this point present a series of cases of disease healed through Christian Science. These have come directly under my notice.
Case A. Congenital stricture of stomach in new-born. — Alarming digestive symptoms presented themselves in new-born shortly after delivery with diagnosis of pyloric stenosis of stomach made by surgical staff of university hospital. Surgical procedure was urged, but radical stand for Christian Science taken against the advice, warning, and threats of physicians. Complete healing resulted.
Case B. Chronic ear infection, acute mastoiditis, abscess, deafness. — A young boy suffered with discharge from ear following measles. This became complicated by the sudden onset of inflammatory process with abscess formation behind infected ear. Two surgeons urged emergency operation, giving bad prognosis, as brain was thought to be infected. The case was handled chiefly through the thought of mother. Disappearance of signs and symptoms in five days.
Case C. Instantaneous healing of organic valvular heart disease. — A young man eked out a miserable existence as an invalid with organic heart disease, following multiple attacks of acute articular rheumatism. He attended a free lecture on Christian Science by a member of the Board of Lectureship of The Mother Church and was greatly impressed. At next subsequent attack he received Christian Science treatment, resulting in instantaneous healing. The patient returned immediately to work and to a normal and healthy life, with mountain climbing as an avocation.
By way of summarizing the above cases it is to be noted that each is of the type of so-called organic disease, so diagnosed by supposedly competent medical men. I shall discuss briefly the classification of disease with special reference to the widely used terminology "organic and functional" as applied to disorders of the body and mind, my purpose being to show that while such a classification may be of value to those handling disease on a matter basis, it has no value to the metaphysician or Christian Scientist.
Any man-made classification of disease is artificial and superficial. Only those who look upon disease as an entity, or essentially physical, could find the classification "organic and functional" of possible value, and this value would be relative and superficial rather than fundamental or real. Structure and action, that is, organ and function, are but two phases of the same anatomical or physiological fact. They exist and coexist in biological life and man. They go hand in hand, and in both normal and abnormal states strike and maintain a corresponding parallelism. Structure or organ makes function, and function is organ in action. This classification has resulted in possible confusion of thought and has tended to limit the practice of spiritual healing to certain types of disease. My remarks are for the purpose of doing away with this confusion and of promoting the practice of spiritual healing to disease of every name and nature.
Man-made classification will undoubtedly be used by the materialist for an indefinite period of time; but it will find no place in scientific Christianity or Christian Science. It had no place in primitive Christianity. Certain it is that Christ Jesus did not classify disease on any such artificial basis, nor did he treat disease from any such superficial viewpoint.
Mrs. Eddy takes a most scientific stand on the subject. She states in no uncertain terms that Christ, Truth, heals all diseases — all types and kinds — organic and functional. A number of quotations might be given from the writings of our Leader. I shall use but one (Science and Health, p. 162); "Christian Science heals organic disease as surely as it heals what is called functional, for it requires only a fuller understanding of the divine Principle of Christian Science to demonstrate the higher rule."
And now, my friends, I come to that part of my address which, to me at least, is the sweetest and the best. As recorded in the Gospel according to John, writing of the marriage feast in Cana of Galilee, "Thou hast kept the good wine until now." It is my opportunity, privilege, duty, responsibility to speak to you about a truly "great woman," the Discoverer, Founder, and Leader of Christian Science; and I approach my subject, Mary Baker Eddy, with genuine and profound respect, honor, reverence, esteem, appreciation, and love.
I am grateful for an ever-unfolding and ever-increasing appreciation of and love for this refined, cultured, spiritually-minded New England woman; and I am especially grateful for the world's recognition and acknowledgment of her character and worth. By common consent the world is more and more willing to ascribe to Mrs. Eddy a high place among its educational and religious leaders. In a recent poll conducted by the Ladies Home Journal of Philadelphia, under the sponsorship of the National Council of Women, Mrs. Eddy headed the list of the twelve greatest women in the United States during the last one hundred years.
The term "great woman" appears only once in Holy Writ. In II Kings 4:8 it is applied to the Shunammite woman, and refers to spiritual qualities or attributes rather than to physique. It is in the same sense that the term is to be applied to Mrs. Eddy. She was great as she was good.
H. G. Wells, the popular English writer, has listed the characters of history. Among the "truly great" he has listed the names of three, Jesus, Aristotle, and Buddha. As requirements for eligibility to the listing "truly great," Mr. Wells fixes two: "They must have started men to think along fresh lines and with vigor;" and, "They must have left something to grow." Asked whether a woman might qualify as "truly great," Mr. Wells replied, "No." According to the terms of the above mentioned requirements — to "have started men to think along fresh lines and with vigor," and to "have left something to grow" — Mary Baker Eddy qualifies for the highest possible rating among the "truly great." She has discovered a Science and a religion, Christian Science. This Science has started men to think along fresh lines, ever unfolding and ever renewing; and with vigor, the vigor of a new faith, a new hope, a new love — indeed a new Life, the Life which is divine Mind. She has founded the Christian Science Church, a religious organization which within a little more than half a century has encircled the globe in its healing and saving mission. She has left something to grow. For "God gave the increase."
Mrs. Eddy has appeared in human history in the light of prophecy and fulfillment. Through the ages references have appeared to the coming of a great, good, and noble woman. Now Mrs. Eddy has appeared. Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1860 wrote, "In heaven's own time, a new truth will be revealed. The angel and apostle of the coming revelation must be a woman indeed, but lofty, pure, and beautiful; and wise."
Certain it is that Mrs. Eddy deserves the rating "great woman" as it concerns my human experience, my healing and salvation. After years of intensive study of her writings, after having witnessed the fruits of her labor as manifested in healed bodies, minds, homes, businesses of the thousands who "arise up, and call her blessed," and as the result of my own healing, after medicine and surgery had failed, I do not hesitate to state my honest conviction that history does not record another woman who has given so much and asked so little, one who has served humanity so unselfishly and so well. From the viewpoint of character and achievement she stands preeminent among the great and good women of all time. My earthly father, a physician of the old school of general practitioner, used his art and his skill in an honest and sincere effort to minister to my ailing body and disturbed mind, but with no avail. Myself a member of the surgical staff of one of the leading medical schools and hospitals, I received from the kindly hearts and willing hands of my professional associates the best and the all that medicine and surgery had to offer. It remained, however, for Mrs. Eddy to give me, through Christian Science, that gleam of light and truth which has enabled me to touch, at least, the hem of the garment of Christ, Truth, and to begin the regenerative process of spiritual healing, or being made whole.
It is right, beautiful, and necessary that Christian Science should have been discovered and founded by a woman; and it is fitting and proper that it should have as its Leader a woman. Christian Science owes its conception and inception, its origin and establishment, to a woman, and the loyal Christian Scientist gladly pays merited tribute to this divinely inspired woman. Nineteen centuries ago, a woman was good enough and pure enough to conceive and bring forth the child Jesus, the personal or human messenger of the Christ, Truth; and in our own age a woman was good enough and pure enough to conceive and bring forth the impersonal or spiritual message, Christian Science.
Our Leader understood more thoroughly, embodied more completely, and expressed more fully the spiritual qualities or attributes of God, divine Mind, than did any other earthly inhabitant with the exception of the Master. Of the many characteristics reflected by her I shall speak of but one — moral courage.
It takes moral courage to speak the truth. This is true today, here and now; but how much more was it true when Mrs. Eddy stood alone, a pioneer in spiritual truth! In a doubting and skeptical age, rank with materialism and Pharisaical with scholastic theology, she, single handed and alone with Principle, planted the Christianity of Jesus upon the rock of spiritual understanding and scientific demonstration, thereby establishing it on the firm foundation of infinite, divine Science. She has made the Christian religion safe and secure for all time and for all men. She has saved it from the attacks of evil of every sort — from atheism, agnosticism, idolatry, infidelity, pharisaism, idolatry, within and without. It is a fact worthy of note that the span of the human experience of Mrs. Eddy parallels chronologically that period in medical history known as the Golden Age, that period during which medical art and practice is said to have reached its high-water mark of progress and development. Mrs. Eddy combined the courage of a Daniel and a David in that she, alone and unafraid, faced the theological and medical systems of her time; and, in the face of their complexities and ambiguities, contradictions and uncertainties, presented the "simplicity that is in Christ" — Christian Science. Mrs. Eddy knew that "the battle is the Lord's;" and she placed her hope, her trust, and her Cause under the shadow of the Almighty God. The Christian Science organization is the direct, natural, and inevitable outcome of the prayers of faith and the labors of love of this "great woman."
My purpose in dwelling on the life and the character of Mrs. Eddy is that we all may render unto her the honor, respect, reverence, and love due her. This is but a fair and just request of a fair and just people. Mary Baker Eddy is the Discoverer, Founder, and Leader of Christian Science, and the sole author of its original and only textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." It is as such that she wished to be known, and it is right that she be ever known as such.
I am profoundly grateful for this opportunity and privilege of speaking to you and thinking with you on the subject of Christian Science. I recommend that you diligently pursue the study and practice of this Science. It will bring into your life-experience fruit — "some thirty, and some sixty, and some an hundred" — each according to his sowing, "good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over." The healing Christ, in divine Science, is ever at hand to save and to heal. Receive him unto thyself.
In conclusion I quote one of our Leader's poems (Poems, p. 75) entitled "Communion Hymn" and to be found in the Christian Science Hymnal (Nos. 298-302):
"Saw ye my Saviour? Heard ye the glad sound?
Felt ye the power of the Word?
'Twas the Truth that made us free,
And was found by you and me
In the life and the love of our Lord.
"Mourner, it calls you, — 'Come to my bosom,
Love wipes your tears all away,
And will lift the shade of gloom,
And for you make radiant room
Midst the glories of one endless day.'
"Sinner, it calls you, — 'Come to this fountain,
Cleanse the foul senses within;
'Tis the Spirit that makes pure,
That exalts thee, and will cure
All thy sorrow and sickness and sin.'
"Strongest deliverer, friend of the friendless,
Life of all being divine:
Thou the Christ, and not the creed;
Thou the Truth in thought and deed;
Thou the water, the bread, and the wine."
[Published in The Chicago Leader, date unknown.]