The same affection, desire, and motives which have stimulated true Christianity in all ages, and given impulse to goodness, in or out of the Church, have nerved her purpose to build on the new-born conception of the Christ, as Jesus declared himself,—namely, "the way, the truth, and the life." Living a true life, casting out evil, healing the sick, and preaching the gospel of Truth,—these are the ends of Christianity. This divine way impels a spiritualization of thought and method, beyond doctrine and ritual; and in nothing else has she departed from the old landmarks.
The unveiled spiritual signification of the Word so enlarges our sense of God that it makes both sense and Soul, man and Life, immaterial, though still individual. It removes all limits from divine power. God must be found all instead of a part of being, and man the reflection of His power and goodness. This Science rebukes sin with its own nothingness, and thus destroys sin quickly and utterly. It makes disease unreal, and this heals it.
The demonstration of moral and physical growth, and a scientific deduction from the Principle of all harmony, declare both the Principle and idea to be divine. If this be true, then death must be swallowed up in Life, and the prophecy of Jesus fulfilled, "Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die." Though centuries passed after those words were originally uttered, before this reappearing of Truth, and though the hiatus be longer still before that saying is demonstrated in Life that knows no death, the declaration is nevertheless true, and remains a clear and profound deduction from Christian Science.
Is Christian Science of the Same Lineage as Spiritualism or Theosophy?
Science is not susceptible of being held as a mere theory. It is hoary with time. It takes hold of eternity, voices the infinite, and governs the universe. No greater opposites can be conceived of, physically, morally, and spiritually, than Christian Science, spiritualism, and theosophy.
Science and Health has effected a revolution in the minds of thinkers on the subject of mediumship, and given impulse to reason and revelation, goodness and virtue. A theory may be sound in spots, and sparkle like a diamond, while other parts of it have no lustre. Christian Science is sound in every part. It is neither warped nor misconceived, when properly demonstrated. If a spiritualist medium understood the Science of Mind-healing, he would know that between those who have and those who have not passed the transition called death, there can be no interchange of consciousness, and that all sensible phenomena are merely subjective states of mortal mind.
Theosophy is a corruption of Judaism. This corruption had a renewal in the Neoplatonic philosophy; but it sprang from the Oriental philosophy of Brahmanism, and blends with its magic and enchantments. Theosophy is no more allied to Christian Science than the odor of the upas-tree is to the sweet breath of springtide, or the brilliant coruscations of the northern sky are to solar heat and light.