Robert Stanley Ross, C.S.B., of New York, New York
Member
of the Board of Lectureship of The Mother Church,
The
First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts
It is with a feeling of joyful reverence that Christian Scientists approach the oft-repeated question, Are Mrs. Eddy's teachings in accord with the Bible, that is, are they Scriptural? for it is not only a question which every Christian has a right to ask, but it is a question to which every Christian Scientist has a ready answer.
The teachings of Christian Science are inseparable from those of the Bible; first, because the Bible is the only book throughout the centuries that has kept alive in human consciousness the fires of spiritual inspiration; second, because the Bible records the words and works of Christ Jesus and of righteous men and women whose obedience to divine law enabled them to rise above the mesmerism of customary belief, miscalled law, and to accomplish the humanly impossible; third, because in the year 1866 the inspired words of the Bible alone stood between Mary Baker Eddy and the grave, restored her to health, and enabled her to discover and demonstrate the divine Principle and rule of Christian healing. Accordingly, on page 497 of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mrs. Eddy gives as the very first of our six denominational tenets the following: "As adherents of Truth, we take the inspired Word of the Bible as our sufficient guide to eternal Life."
In view of this inseparable relationship between Mrs. Eddy's teachings and the Scriptures, Christian Scientists revere the Bible and, by systematic study, endeavor to find therein this "sufficient guide to eternal Life." Some people criticize us, however, because we use so persistently the Christian Science textbook as a supplement to our study of the Bible. But, we ask, do not students and clergymen of other denominations use books, known as commentaries, notes, and helps, all intended to give them a clearer understanding of the Scriptures? Does anyone question their right to use as many of these books as they will? Certainly not! Why, then, should we Christian Scientists be criticized for using this greatest of all aids to Bible study? Is it because our textbook illumines the sacred pages more practically than any and all other books? Is it because our textbook reveals the Science of Life and explains Christian healing so simply and clearly that all may understand and practice it?
Upon reading Mrs. Eddy's tender allusions to her childhood and to her mother's devotion to the things of Spirit, many of us have been reminded of the days when we, also, stood at a fond mother's knee and listened, with wonder to her simply told Bible stories. Those were the days when childhood faith, unspoiled by contact with the world's unbelief, was capable of responding to Truth as naturally as a flower turns towards the light, never doubting.
Some time ago, for example, the mother of a Christian Science Sunday School pupil was contending with what seemed to be severe illness. Unable to cope successfully with the situation, the mother turned to her little boy — a lad of about nine years — for help. Opening his Bible, the little fellow read in his childlike way the account of Daniel in the lions' den. Closing the book, he sat silently for a moment, and then without comment resumed his play. Presently the mother found herself well. Asked what he had done to bring about such a remarkable result, the boy replied, naively "Well, Mumsy, I knew God was good to Daniel and that He would be just as good to you." No wonder that Jesus pointed to the child as the type of thought best suited to spiritual cultivation and growth! Oh, that all of us were more like children in this respect (all of us can be if we will) and less like mortal men and women!
However, those of us who did not have the fortifying influence of Christian Science in our early years may have permitted ourselves, later on, to look upon these Biblical events as mere historical incidents, little associated with present-day experience aside from the moral lessons which they teach. In keeping with custom, we may have accepted the argument that the days of Christian demonstrations, miscalled miracles, have passed. When trials and tribulations seemed to beset us, we may have yielded to them as supposed evidences of God's will instead of rejecting them on the basis of His unchanging love. Attacked by sickness, we may have resorted to so-called material remedies instead of knowing that God, infinite good, not only forgives all our iniquities, but heals all our diseases. Confronted by the specter of death we may have resigned to the supposed inevitable without so much as questioning its baseless claim to dominion over us, instead of mentally and spiritually rising in rebellion against it in the understanding that God is ever-present Life, in which there can be no death.
After all this, was it any wonder that to many of us the Bible ceased to be of interest from a practical point of view? Was it any wonder that we turned to it less and less as the years passed by? In many homes the Bible had become a closed book, closed not only in figure, but in fact. This indifference was not due to any change in the Bible, however, but to our change of attitude towards it. But then came the joy when Christian Science brought us the glad tidings that God, infinite good, is as ready today as He was of old to heal the sick, comfort the sorrowing, and raise the dead! And why not this? Is not He, who enabled Jesus, his disciples, and the early Christian Church to accomplish their healing works, — is not He the same "yesterday, and to day, and for ever"? Surely, our dear God, who was all-power then, must be all-power now!
One of the outstanding features of the Bible is the frequency with which it refers to spiritual healing. From beginning to end, the Bible shows that the ability to overcome otherwise insurmountable difficulties was characteristic of those who lived close to God. As early as the twentieth chapter of Genesis, for example, we find a record of spiritual healing.
There we are told that Abraham prayed unto God and that God healed Abraham's friend, Abimelech. Farther along, in Moses' day, we find more records of healing by prayer or spiritual means. This healing and saving power the great lawgiver demonstrated to an astonishing degree; but we find nothing in the records to indicate that he ever taught his followers how to heal. Aaron, Joshua, Elijah, Elisha, and others healed by prayer, but none of the patriarchs and prophets appear to have had disciples or pupils who could in like manner demonstrate God's power. Not until the ministry of our Master do we find one who could in, a general way at least impart to others this understanding and the divine power which accompanies it.
From this you will see that
healing by spiritual means was not confined to the early centuries of the
Christian era; but, like the leading motif of a great orchestral composition,
the theme of spiritual healing occurs and recurs throughout Biblical history,
reaching its climax in those marvelous demonstrations of the Master, whose
religion, more emphatically than that of any other of his predecessors, was a
religion of healing. It promised a full, complete salvation from all evil.
Overcoming human discord of every sort, Jesus called upon his followers
throughout all time to go and do likewise, saying, "He that believeth on
me, the works that I do shall he do also." Instead of wondering whether
God was willing that this one or that should be healed, or whether he was
worthy of healing, the Master set at liberty in every case those who called
upon him for help. Did not this indicate that man's divine birthright, your
divine birthright, everyone's divine birthright, is always life, health, and
happiness, here and now?
Accordingly, one should be pardoned for wondering why religious, medical, and philanthropic agencies, aiming to promote human health and happiness, have not investigated in a more serious and friendly manner the healing method which centuries ago proved itself to be the most efficacious in history, with an unparalleled record of accomplishment, without a single recorded failure. Jesus healed sickness and sin not only without drugs and surgery, but without mesmerism, or mental suggestion. Furthermore, he taught its generalities to others and they, in turn, taught others, and so on for possibly three centuries.
This proved that Christian healing was based upon an ever-available, ever-operative divine Principle, or law, instead of upon the Master's personality, and that it was demonstrated according to rule. In other words, Christian healing was scientific healing; hence the name, Christian Science, given to this the greatest of all discoveries by Mary Baker Eddy.
Owing to Mrs. Eddy's discovery, following many years of investigation, study, and experimentation, the world is learning that the works of Christ-Jesus were practical; that they were the enforcement in human experience of divine, natural law; that they were evidence of the divine will or purpose to redeem or save mankind from sin, disease, and death.
Defining salvation on page 593 of Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy writes as follows: "SALVATION. Life, Truth, and Love understood and demonstrated as supreme over all; sin, sickness, and death destroyed." Could there be any more practical method of salvation or redemption from evil than the destruction of evil?
By healing all manner of sickness as well as of sin, Christian Science is demonstrating in our day, as Jesus demonstrated in his, that evil has no divine cause, authority, nor sanction, but, that it must be, it is, an unprincipled, unlawful, mesmeric imposition upon the race. It is no longer a subject of controversy, but a fact generally admitted that Christian Science is healing phases of sin and sickness that have defied other religious and medical effort.
Although we believe that Christian Science is capable of ridding the race of sin and disease and that, when universally understood and demonstrated, it will do so, we admit that we have only begun to grasp and utilize the might and majesty of this Science. Christian Scientists will do better healing work in the proportion that they rise above the age-old belief in the supposed reality of sin, disease, and death, — a belief which is mesmeric in effect and as such must be recognized, rebuked, and thrown off, — they must rise above this age-old belief and by spiritual growth conform their lives to the divine Principle, Love, exemplified in the earthly life of their Lord and Master, Jesus the Christ, or Jesus the Godlike man. Nevertheless, I feel safe in saying that Christian Science has healed and is healing daily practically every type of disease known to medical practice.
Referring recently to the healing efficacy of Christian Science, Dr. Richard C. Cabot, Professor of Clinical Medicine and Professor of Social Ethics at Harvard University, said: "The good effects of Christian Science I see on all sides. I have not the slightest doubt that it does good, that it cures disease, organic as well as functional." In this same connection, Dr. Charles Hunter, Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine at the University of Manitoba, said: "Christian Science has helped many persons suffering from diseases which to the medical practitioner had defied diagnosis." Dr. Drummond Shiels, a physician and member of the British Parliament, said, "Some of the most remarkable cases I know of, wonderful cures, have been in connection with Christian Science, which I have seen and know." Finally, Dr. William Mayo of the famous Mayo Brothers clinic and hospital at Rochester, Minnesota, in addressing the staff of a Toronto, Canada, hospital, said: "I have sent people to Christian Scientists and they have got relief."
Several months ago, for example, I was introduced to an audience by the daughter of a well-known physician. Twelve years ago she was suffering from what had been pronounced internal cancer. The surgeons who were employed found that the disease had so developed that they closed the incision, which they had made without proceeding any farther and notified the family that the patient could live for not more than three months. Confronted by what seemed to be a hopeless outlook, this woman then turned to Christian Science for help and was healed. She is now radiantly happy, has become a practitioner, and at present is the second, that is the Bible reader in the local Christian Science church.
In that same locality, a boy of
seven years had been unconscious for nine weeks, owing to what had been
diagnosed by physicians as a complication of sleeping sickness and tuberculosis
of the bowels, for neither of which is there
admittedly any known medical cure. Save for an almost imperceptible action of
the heart, all the bodily organs had apparently ceased to function. Recalling
that, years before, a friend had spoken to her about it, the despairing mother
then turned to Christian Science for help. The practitioner who was called had
been in the home not more than half an hour when consciousness returned to the
child and the organs of the body began to function. On the following day the
child asked for food. In a week he was up and dressed and, a few weeks later,
he was romping and playing as usual. He is now in normal health, a happy,
grateful pupil in the Sunday School of that same Christian Science church.
It is therefore not only right for Christians to heal sickness and sin in the way Jesus healed them, but it is inseparable from Christian discipleship. To illustrate: What would be thought of one who claims to be a pianist but who is unable to play the piano? Or, what would be thought of one who claims to be a lawyer, but who is unable to prepare a brief, present an intelligent argument in court, or to sum up before a jury? Or, what would be thought of one who claims to be an architect, but who, when called upon by an intending builder, is unable to draw up a set of plans and specifications? "Even so," writes James, "faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith (understanding) without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith (understanding) by my works."
The master Christian supplemented his words with works and required the same of his followers. Early in his ministry he called upon them not only to preach the Gospel, but to heal the sick, cast out demons, and raise the dead: and in his final charge, he said, "These signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover." In view of these and other Scriptural passages that could be cited, is it not equally incumbent upon the Christians of today to present proofs of their profession? Has the divine standard been changed or lowered? May we now accept Christianity in theory, but reject it in practice? The only evidence of discipleship which Christian Science accepts is the only evidence which Jesus accepted, namely, the ability to heal, by spiritual means, both sickness and sin.
But the question arises, What is the method or modus operandi of Christian healing? In order to answer this question satisfactorily, let us consult our supreme authority, the Bible. There we are told that God is Spirit or Mind; that He is good and that His goodness or mercy endureth forever; that He made all that was made; and that His work was finished. We are assured, in other words, that the real universe, including man, is spiritual, wholly good, unchangeable, complete.
The Bible tells us also that God is of purer eyes than to behold evil, and that He cannot look upon, because infinite good cannot be aware of, iniquity. Here you will see that Christian Science has Scriptural warrant for declaring that God, spiritual good, is infinite, all, and that evil, having no divine authority, is demonstrably or provably unreal, untrue, and powerless, human belief and experience to the contrary notwithstanding.
In view of the foregoing, it
should be clear to you that whatever exists truly, exists in this infinitely
good universe of God, Spirit, Mind, and that God's man — that is, your real,
your true, your spiritual selfhood — is divinely mental, not material, finite,
human. According to Genesis, God made man in His own image and likeness, in the
image and likeness of Spirit or Mind, not matter; whereas, according to the
book of Romans, they which are the children of the flesh are not the children
of God; for neither God nor God's man can be discerned by the so-called
physical senses. Therefore, the real universe, including man, is the likeness
of all-inclusive Spirit, hence spiritual; whereas a so-called material
creation, must be nothing claiming to be something. It is this very nothingness
of matter and the allness of God, Spirit, Mind, which
Christian Science has come to reveal. It was this spiritual understanding of
the real universe and the real man, dispelling the human delusion, which healed
the sick in Jesus' day and, through Christian Science, is now repeating the
ancient wonder.
In proof of all this, the Bible tells us that Jesus came to do the will of the Father and to destroy the works of the devil. By studying the Gospels, you will find that the Master spent most of his time liberating those who believed they were in bondage to sin, disease, and death. If these evils were real, that is, it they were of God, Jesus would have disobeyed God by destroying them. But the very fact that the Master could and did destroy them, proved beyond question or room for reasonable doubt that God was not their author.
True, God made all that was made; but (let me repeat) the Bible tells us that God made it all very good. Are sin, disease, and death good? Did you ever hear anyone say he was glad to do wrong, to be sick, or to be in pain? If sin, disease, and death, are good, we should be glad to have them with us always, even as we are glad to have any good friend with us always. But ask the slave of wrongdoing and the bed-ridden invalid if they see any good in sin and suffering, supposedly sent from God, and in which, according to such reasoning, they should be glad to remain.
Is it not self-evident that if God were directly or indirectly responsible for evil, if He were in any way associated with human suffering, the cries of mankind for relief would be useless and that Christian Science, medicine, surgery, or any other method of treatment to which one might appeal for help would be illegitimate? Do you not see that none of us would even presume to recover, to reform, or to rise above discouragement and failure, lest we should find ourselves fighting against God?
Several months ago, I heard a commotion on the street behind me. Looking backwards, I saw a cat running in my direction pursued by a dog. Presently, another dog appeared on the scene, cutting off retreat. Faced by this dilemma, the cat started to cross the roadway at a point where two trolley cars, going in opposite directions, were about to pass each other. The predicament seemed to be a desperate one, but, instead of permitting itself to be rushed fearfully to almost certain destruction under the car wheels, the cat turned suddenly, faced its pursuers, and courageously stood its ground. Surprised by the unexpected change in events, the dogs came to an abrupt stop at a safe distance, barked loudly for a while, and then slunk away.
Like the dogs chasing the frightened cat, evil will pursue and, in one form or another, under one name or another, endeavor to destroy us just so long as we believe in fear, and run away from it as reality. But sin, disease, and death are not good, hence not of God: consequently they must be unreal or untrue. It is therefore your divine right to turn upon and begin here and now mentally and fearlessly to resist your own and the world's belief in the supposed reality of sin, disease, and death — a belief which, although universally submitted to as law, is not and never will be law; it is your divine right to resist this belief and be free. Knowing that evil becomes powerless when in the light of God's all-pervading, ever-present love, we recognize its unreality. The apostle wrote, "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."
Accordingly prayer as understood in Christian Science is not an appeal to the Giver of all good to do more than He has already done, nor to grant the special request of a petitioner. Rather is it joyful recognition and humble, prayerful, childlike affirmation of the forever fact that God has already done all things well. True prayer enables us to look through and beyond this mystified human sense of things into the rarefied atmosphere of spiritual reality, where we see things as they are, not as they seem to be. In the words of Isaiah: "For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy." Who would not rejoice in the understanding that good is infinite, all?
This prayer of joy and gratitude, rebuking and rising above sense-testimony, demonstrates that men need not be out of health, happiness, home, friends, employment, money, nor anything else that is necessary and good, so long as they understand spiritually that man cannot by any possibility be outside the realm of God, infinite good. God has not made a poor man or a failure any more than He has made a sick man or a sinner. Therefore, if obeyed, the same divine Principle or law which Christian Scientists invoke daily in their own and others' behalf to silence pain, heal a broken heart, and restore wasted tissue of the body, may be depended upon also to replenish a depleted purse. The Psalmist sang, "No good thing will he (God) withhold from them that walk uprightly;" and Jesus said, "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you."
There is no more concord between Christianity and poverty than there is between Christianity and any other phase of human discord and limitation, sin, disease, and death included. Whatever seemed to be the human need of those who turned to him for help, Jesus demonstrated God's willingness and God's ability to meet that need and to meet it instantaneously. Accordingly, Mrs. Eddy writes on page 494 of Science and Health, "Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need," but only to the degree, of course, that we express, manifest, have divine Love, argue the senses what they will. God is ever saying to man, His divine image and likeness, "Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine."
Although God is a respecter of spirituality, He is no respecter of persons. The divine Mind has no personal favorites. Principle regards one idea or reflection as highly as another. If some people seem to be sharing more abundantly in good than others, this is not due to divine discrimination, but to the operation of divine law, which law is as available to all as it is to one. In the light of this divine law, we see that every child, man, and woman as an idea of divine Principle, Mind, stands before the Almighty with an equal right to not only health and happiness, but to opportunity and success. It is our sacred privilege to demonstrate this spiritual fact. But before divine law can become operative in our behalf, we must be joyfully expectant of good. We must lay claim humbly and importunately to all that is included in man's birthright as the son of God, who gives us dominion, not over supposed persons, circumstances, and things, but over a mortally mental sense of the universe, including man; for Mrs. Eddy tells us on page 86 of Science and Health, that "mortal mind sees what it believes as certainly as it believes what it sees. It feels, hears, and sees its own thoughts."
According to Christian Science then, the present harmony, equality, perfection of the universe, is and will be always the basis of true thought and demonstration. To human sense, however, this fact must be a discovery or revelation. The dawning upon human consciousness of the present perfection of God's universe, including man, is the appearing of Christ, Truth, even that which Jesus came to reveal and exemplify. This divine appearing constitutes Christian Science practice, and brings about in earthly experience that which is known as healing. Fundamentally, however, this process is not the healing of sick persons and sinners, nor of persons who believe they are sick and sinning, but it is the dispelling of a false, mesmeric, misled sense of things calling itself a sick man or sinner by spiritual recognition of the glorious fact that the real man, the Christ-man, has never been sick nor a sinner. The power which accompanies this spiritual idea, this recognition of reality, is irresistible. It opens wide the flood-gates of omnipotence. It ushers into human consciousness the very presence of God.
Therefore, the method, or modus operandi of Christian Science healing is the art of maintaining, through meekness and love, such a clear, unobstructed outlook upon spiritual reality that the mesmerism of customary human belief, scientifically termed mortal mind or animal magnetism, cannot becloud our thinking. In this way and in this way only can we see for ourselves and others the unreality of that which, to human sense, seems to be real and substantial. Instead of doing something to supposedly separate our outward human personalities and conditions, we have only to clarify our own consciousness spiritually. We have only to cast out the beam, or false material concept, from our own thought and see the universe, including man, as the spiritual idea of God, in order to remove the mote or error that seems to be associated with others. Accordingly, on pages 476 and 477 of Science and Health Mrs. Eddy writes: "Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour saw God's own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick."
When through spiritual growth Christian Scientists are capable of seeing man as lovingly, as spiritually, as Godlike as Jesus saw man, then they also will heal the sick invariably and instantaneously.
One of our beloved hymns (Christian Science Hymnal. No. 81) reads as follows:
In atmosphere of love divine,
We live, and move, and breathe;
Though mortal eyes may see it not;
'Tis sense that would deceive.
The Principle of
being, God,
Is with us everywhere;
He holds us perfect in His love,
And we His image bear.
The mortal sense we must destroy,
If we would bring to light
The wonders of eternal Mind,
Where sense is lost in sight.
Some time ago, for example, while motoring with a friend through a public park in one of our large mid-western cities, I saw a beautiful polar bear going through a series of motions from which, I learned, he never deviates. Year in and year out, the bear takes three or four steps forward and without turning, the same number backward hundreds of times a day with tedious regularity. When asked for an explanation, the keeper said that the animal grew up from cubhood in a cage that permitted him to take only those few steps in either direction. Although he is now at liberty to roam where he will in a large, rugged, outdoor enclosure, including a pool of water, the bear, in bondage to his own sense of limitation, believes still, that he has room enough for a few steps only.
Like the bear, are not most persons in bondage, more or less, to the belief of limitation? Christian Science, however, is showing mankind how to throw off the small-cage habit. Instead of permitting or encouraging us to yield to suggestions of limited health, limited happiness, limited opportunity, limited ability, limited income, and so forth, this Science encourages us to face fearlessly the foe calling itself limitation, in the assurance that error is never real or true, plead for recognition as it will. Though the sun seems to rise, it is the earth turning. Though the earth seems to be flat, we know it is round. Though clouds temporarily hide it, the sun continues to shine. Our great need is to be awake spiritually to the unreality of all sense-testimony, with its lying limitations, and cheerfully, confidently fix our gaze on spiritual reality, which is ever-present, unchangeable, unlimited good, and to which sin, disease, sorrow, poverty, failure, discouragement, disaster, and death are unknown.
Although Christian Scientists have no personal devil, we admit that the universal belief in evil, termed by Mrs. Eddy mortal mind or animal magnetism, amounts to the same thing as a personal devil until its mask is removed by individual spiritual enlightenment and its fraudulent claims are exposed, denounced, and destroyed. If, however, evil could come to the inquirer in the form of a personal devil and tell him to put off or not to take up the study of Christian Science; or, if it could tell the student of Christian Science to neglect his daily study and meditation and to ignore the By-laws in the Manual of The Mother Church; or, if it could tell him to become lax in his loyalty to our beloved Cause and remiss in his reverence for Mrs. Eddy, — if it could come and talk to them in this manner, both inquirer and student would, under the guidance of Truth, be alert enough to do the very opposite of the devil's bidding. But because evil always works suggestively depending upon persons to carry out its devices by way of silent arguments that appear to be reasonable and sound, we sometimes find ourselves accepting these evil suggestions as impulses of our own thought-processes. Then some students wonder why they are not progressing spiritually, why they are out of step with The Mother Church, and why their treatments or prayers do not heal as quickly and as uniformly as they should. Now that we have an inkling of what has been at work, let us strive more diligently to handle — that is, overcome and get rid of — the adversary instead of being handled by it.
Furthermore, to beginners who would have their feet planted firmly in the true path of Christian Science, let me say that there are at your disposal church services on Sundays and on Wednesday evenings testimonial meetings where you may go and hear those who have been healed by Christian Science tell about it. There are Christian Science Sunday Schools where children who are accepted as pupils are taught how to utilize this glorious, demonstrable understanding of God. There are free Christian Science Reading Rooms where the authorized literature may be read, borrowed, or purchased. There is in the back of The Christian Science Journal, a list of authorized practitioners who, when called upon, are prepared to help those who appear to be unable to help themselves.
Finally, let it be understood clearly that there is only one Christian Science and that is the Christian Science revealed by God to His loving, watchful, obedient servant Mary Baker Eddy. God selected Mrs. Eddy to be His messenger and scribe to this and future ages because she was wholly worthy and capable of carrying out the divine commission. It is as necessary for him who would succeed as a Christian Scientist to keep this fact clearly before him and gratefully to acknowledge it, as it is for the mariner to refer constantly to his charts and compass and obey them in order to steer his ship safely past the rocks and shoals along the way. Owing to this saintly woman's discovery, the world is witnessing in accordance with prophecy the establishment as a permanent, scientific, demonstrable system of that healing method by which the patriarchs, prophets, and apostles performed their mighty works, and which the Bible, studied in the light of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," now makes available to all mankind.
Obviously, in a brief period like this, one can do little more than touch upon the inexhaustible subject of Christian Science. Nevertheless, in the hour at my disposal, I have endeavored to show, first, that the teachings of Mrs. Eddy are in full, uncompromising accord with the spiritual teachings of the Bible; second, that spiritual healing is inseparable from Biblical Christianity, than which there is no other in fact; third, that it is unquestionably both the right and the duty of Christians in this and future ages not only to preach the Gospel, but to practice Christian healing.
Writing on page 126 of Science and
Health, Mrs. Eddy says: "I have set forth Christian Science and its
application to the treatment of disease just as I have discovered them. I have
demonstrated through Mind the effects of Truth on the health, longevity, and
morals of men; and I have found nothing in ancient or in modern systems on
which to found my own, except the teachings and demonstrations of our great
Master and the lives of prophets and apostles. The Bible has been my only
authority."
[Published in The
Brooklyn Daily Eagle of Brooklyn, New York, May 2, 1936.]