Pulpit and Press (6th Edition)

by Mary Baker Eddy

The growth of Christian Science is properly marked by the erection of a visible house of worship in this city, which will be dedicated tomorrow. It has cost $200,000, and no additional sums outside of the subscriptions are asked for. This particular phase of religious belief has impressed itself upon a large and increasing number of Christian people, who have been tempted to examine its principles, and doubtless have been comforted and strengthened by them. Any new movement will awaken some sort of interest. There are many who have worn off the novelty and are thoroughly carried away with the requirements, simple and direct as they are, of Christian Science. The opposition against it from the so-called orthodox religious bodies keeps up a while, but after a little skirmishing, finally subsides. No one religious body holds the whole of truth, and whatever is likely to show even some one side of it will gain followers and live down any attempted repression.

Christian Science does not strike all as a system of truth. If it did, it would be a prodigy. Neither does the Christian faith produce the same impressions upon all. Freedom to believe or to dissent is a great privilege in these days. So when a number of conscientious followers apply themselves to a matter like Christian Science, they are enjoying that liberty which is their inherent right as human beings, and though they cannot escape censure, yet they are to be numbered among the many pioneers who are searching after religious truth. There is really nothing settled. Every truth is more or less in a state of agitation. The many who have worked in the mine of knowledge are glad to welcome others who have different methods, and with them bring different ideas.

It is too early to predict where this movement will go, and how greatly it will affect the well established methods. That it has produced a sensation in religious circles, and called forth the implements of theological warfare, is very well known. While it has done this, it may, on the other hand, have brought a benefit. Ere this many a new project in religious belief has stirred up feeling, but as time has gone on, compromises have been welcomed.

The erection of this temple will doubtless help on the growth of its principles. Pilgrims from everywhere will go there in search of truth, and some may be satisfied and some will not. Christian Science cannot absorb the world's thought. It may get the share of attention it deserves, but it can only aspire to take its place alongside other great demonstrations of religious belief which have done something good for the sake of humanity.

Wonders will never cease. Here is a church whose treasurer has to send out word that no sums except those already subscribed can be received! The Christian Scientists have a faith of the mustard-seed variety. What a pity some of our practical Christian folk have not a faith approximate to that of these "impractical" Christian Scientists.

(Jackson Patriot, Jackson, Mich. January 20, 1895.)

EXTRACT.

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE.

The erection of a massive temple in Boston by Christian Scientists, at a cost of over $200,000, love offerings of the disciples of MARY BAKER EDDY, reviver of the ancient faith and author of the text-book from which, with the New Testament at the foundation, believers receive light, health, and strength, is evidence of the rapid growth of the new movement. We call it new. It is not. The name Christian Science alone is new. At the beginning of Christianity it was taught and practiced by Jesus and his disciples. The Master was the great healer. But the wave of materialism and bigotry that swept over the world for fifteen centuries, covering it with the blackness of the Dark Ages, nearly obliterated all vital belief in his teachings. The Bible was a sealed book. Recently a revived belief in what he taught is manifest, and Christian Science is one result. No new doctrine is proclaimed, but there is the fresh development of a principle that was put into practice by the founder of Christianity nineteen hundred years ago, though practiced in other countries at any earlier date. "The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done, is that which shall be done, and there is no new thing under the sun."

The condition which Jesus of Nazareth, on various occasions during the three years of his ministry on earth, declared to be essential, in the mind of both healer and patient, is contained in the one word—FAITH. Can drugs suddenly cure leprosy? When the ten lepers were cleansed and one returned to give thanks in Oriental phrase, Jesus said to him: "Arise, go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole." That was Christian Science. In his "Law of Psychic Phenomena" Hudson says: "That word, more than any other, expresses the whole law of human felicity and power in this world and of salvation in the world to come." It is that attribute of mind which elevates man above the level of the brute, and gives dominion over the physical world. It is the essential element of success in every field of human endeavor. It constitutes the power of the human soul. When Jesus of Nazareth proclaimed its potency from the hilltops of Palestine he gave to mankind the key to health and heaven, and earned the title of "Savior of the World." Whittier, grandest of mystic poets, saw the truth: