Untitled No. 1

 

Clarence W. Chadwick, C.S.B., of Omaha, Nebraska

 

Clarence W. Chadwick, C.S.B., of Omaha, Neb., delivered a Christian Science lecture yesterday afternoon at the Murat Theater under auspices of the First Church of Christ, Scientist. He was introduced by Mrs. Ancil T. Brown.

The lecturer spoke as follows:

 

What the whole world needs today is more religion. But this religion must be made practical if it is to prove reme­dial or constructive. The gospel of healing must accompany the gospel of preaching. If the Word is to be with power, it is what Christians do, more than what they say, that convinces one that there is salvation in religion.

Because Christian Science has healed its thousands and hundreds of thousands in Jesus' way, it has won its right to recognition as a practical religion. The best way to inspire a man's faith in God, is to heal him morally and physically, thereby proving to him the power of Immanuel, "God' with us," and giving him breadth and freedom of thought with which to recognize the great need of a demonstrable religion. His experience of healing soon does away with his in­nate opposition to spirituality. Those spiritually healed in Christian Science have nothing to say against Christ Jesus, nor against the religion which He lived to establish. Their one desire is to understand God and His Christ and to make their religion practical.

 

God Is Love Speaker Says

The story is told of a man, who, when a small child, became separated from his parents and was made to believe that he had a most unkind and cruel father, one who was always severe, unloving, and unlovable; one who was relentless and unforgiving, showing neither mer­cy nor pity for his own. The child listened to this portrayal of his father's character, which naturally made him very unhappy; and he grew to man­hood, actually believing it all to be true.

Finally, a traveler, who was well ac­quainted with his father, found his way to this man and told him what was really true about his father. The man soon saw that he had been laboring un­der a woeful misconception of his par­ent, who was now represented to him as a most loving father, full of goodness and compassion toward his children, never angry nor wrathful, but full of gentleness and tenderness and kindness - just the opposite of what he had been taught to believe.

Many of us have been educated to believe what is just as untrue concern­ing our heavenly Father; and not un­til Christian Science entered into our lives did we learn that God is Love, full of goodness, mercy, and compassion; that he sends no evil, sin, disease, nor death upon man; that He is never angry nor wrathful with His children, but unutterably kind and loving.

Who but a God who is Love, a kind and considerate Father, "full of com­passion, and gracious, long-suffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth" (Ps. 80:15), could say to us; "Come now, and let us reason together - though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool" (Isa. 1:18). When one experiences forgiveness of sin, one can say with the Psalmist, "O give thanks unto the Lord; for He is good, for His mercy endureth forever" (Ps. 106:1).

 

Love Manifested Is Precious Pearl

Some of the terms employed in Chris­tian Science to define Deity to human consciousness are Love, Truth, Life, Spirit and Mind. To one trained to believe in a God of wrath and vengeance, these synonyms for God, when studied in the light of Christian Science, reveal an entirely new sense of heaven and earth and man.

The life of a professing Christian should prove to humanity that Love manifested is the greatest thing in the world, that it is the one thing worth while, the pearl of great price. How can there be more than omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent Love and infinite manifesta­tion? All other terms used to define Deity are but different names for divine Love.

Christian Science reveals the spir­itual idea, man, as forever inseparable from God. To know, then, that God is Love, makes men fearless, unselfish, lov­ing, kind and compassionate. To know that God is Truth, makes men truthful, trustworthy, upright and honorable. To know that God is Life, makes men more mentally awake, active and useful, and, therefore increases longevity. To know that God is Spirit, increases spirituality and leads thought away from the body. To know that God is one infinite Mind, quickens one's mental faculties of per­ception and comprehension, and enlarges one's capacity for right thinking.

Love's invitation, given to the world through Jesus Christ twenty centuries ago, "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest" (Mat. 11:28), is reiterated today in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," by Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science. It comes with healing in its wings, revealing the sacred mission of Christ Jesus, to teach and to demonstrate the lesson of divine Love. If we would become acquainted with the Father, we must learn to love, for what saith the Scripture? "Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God: and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.    He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love" (I John 4:7-8).

 

Pays Tribute to Mrs. Eddy

Mrs. Eddy's teachings have thrown so much light upon the life and mission of the great Saviour of men, that the whole world rises to call her blessed. She says in substance to her followers: "If you profess to love him, keep his commandments." Then she explains, in unmistakable terms, how we are to prove our obedience.

When once asked whether she believed in the atonement of Christ, she replied: "I do; and this atonement becomes more to me since it includes mans redemption from sickness as well as from sin. I reverence and adore Christ as never before" (Misc. p. 96).

Christian Scientists do not believe that Jesus, the highest executor of God's law, atoned for our sins by annulling the righteous penalty for individual wrong doing: but that, by demonstrating the omnipotence of good, he proved the utter powerlessness of evil, and thereby outlined for us the one and only way to escape the penalty for wrong doing, viz., by ceasing to do wrong. By proving man's at-one-ment with God, good, he became the way, the truth, and the life to all mankind.

Christian Scientists do not question the spiritual origin of divinity of Jesus. They accept, without reservation, Mrs. Eddy's statement that Mary's conception of him was spiritual (Science an Health, p. 332). They honor and revere the name of Christ Jesus, and they know only too well that something more than lip service is required to enable them to follow in his mental footsteps. They recognize the necessity for consecrated study and application of the sacred Word as presented in the Bible and in the Christian Science textbook, if they would ever make their religion practical. 

One of the highest tributes ever paid the Saviour was by our revered Leader when she said "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" (Science and Health, p. 476).

 

Demonstration Is Defined

What is demonstration in Christian Science?  It is the practical proof of God's power and presence, resulting in moral and physical healing. By way of illustration: Suppose that a Christian Scientist reads in the morning papers that some dreaded plague is about to make its appearance in his community; that it has elsewhere already claimed its thousands of victims, and that materia medica is unable to cope with it. What does he do? He instantly refuses to accept sense testimony by striving to realize that the one Mind, God, is ever-present and all-powerful, and governs the entire universe in perpetual peace and harmony; conse­quently, that there are in reality no evil minds to believe in disease nor to fear it: that there is really no evil power to mesmerize anyone into believing what is untrue. He knows that divine Love is supreme; that it casts out all fear. He persists in abiding in this secret place of the omnipotence and omnipresence of good; and what is the result? He re­mains fearless and strong; he escapes the devastating scourge himself, and he helps many others to recognize the nothing­ness of fear and hypnotic suggestion. This is Immanuel, "God with us," or dem­onstration. It is religion made prac­tical.

One who knows nothing of Christian Science is confronted with the same glar­ing headlines, announcing the forthcom­ing plague. What does he do? He will most likely accept what he reads and will eagerly convey the information to others. It is safe to say that it will not occur to him to think of God as an ever-present help. He believes that some awful calamity is about to be experi­enced; and he thinks of it so much, and becomes so fearful of results that, al­most before he realizes it, that which he greatly feared has come upon him. Fear and disease are more real to him than what he calls life, and he surrenders to them unconditionally! How true the Scripture, "Perfect love casteth out fear; for fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love" (I John 4:18). Thousands upon thousands of human lives are sacrificed every year because people insist upon believing and fearing what the senses tell them, instead of acknowledging the power and presence of God.

Demonstration is the power of divine Love made practical to humanity. One can not grasp the meaning of scientific demonstration nor become a successful practitioner until one learns how to feel and to express love to all mankind. The true Christian Scientist strives to abide in a healing consciousness, one characterized by genuine humility and confidence, as well as thankfulness for God's goodness and mercy.

Experience of Apostle Paul

Had Christ Jesus failed to prove that "His word was with power" (Luke 4:32), could he have conferred power upon his disciples "to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease" (Matt. 10:1)? Indeed not! No personal gift ever conferred real power upon any one. The giving of spiritual power to his followers was nothing less than the prac­tical proof to them of healing, accom­panied by such audible attestation as the Master felt led to give. And this is demonstration, which fully agrees with Webster's definition of the word: to show by proof; to establish beyond a doubt.

Christians today are given power to heal only when they lose confidence in matter, and turn to God with such im­plicit faith, trust, and understanding, that healing actually takes place.  

The Apostle Paul's experience on the island of Melita will illustrate this point. The poisonous viper had fastened itself upon his hand, and the barbarous na­tives were sure that he would soon succumb to the poison. But Paul's faith and trust were in God, which gave him power, not only to heal himself, but many others, who later came to him for help. The barbarians, after looking on for a great while after Paul had "shaken off the

beast into the fire and felt no harm," finally "changed their minds and said that he was a god" (Acts 28:5,6).

The modern unbeliever, after wit­nessing numerous cases of healing in Christian Science, must also change his mind if he would ever understand the operation of spiritual law and be given power to heal.

Thousands are daily turning away from matter to Mind for help, and the demonstration of Christian Science is taking place in their behalf. Many are being spared the experience of the surgeon's knife, a very few treatments oftentimes removing any necessity for an operation. The man who is healed in Christian Science receives an impartation of spiritual power which soon enables him to comprehend the rudiments of Christian healing.                  

 

Surrender of Self-Will

Demonstration is not humanly willing nor outlining things to come our way. It is the voluntary surrender of self-will and self-interest for the good of humanity. Christian Scientists do not demonstrate material things. They work mentally to bring their thinking into accord with the will of God. That is, they seek first the leading of divine wisdom and then, as the result of unselfish obedience and trust, all needful things are added unto them. Demonstration discriminates between human want and spiritual need. Human beings may want a great many things which it is not at all needful nor even advisable for them to have. Demonstration enables them acquire only such things as are useful and needful. In other words, it enables them to be truly economical.

Talking Christian Science, or arguing in the letter, without practicing its precepts, does not make religion practical. Demonstration is the consistent blending of practice and profession; it is the answer to the unceasing prayer of Christian living, the overcoming, or blotting out, of evil with good.

Why are Christians so vitally concerned in the coming of Christ, Truth? Is it not because Christ comes to unmask and to destroy the falsity of evil, thereby revealing the all-presence of God good? Is it not perfectly clear, then, that until one gains the right idea of good, one does not comprehend the mythical nature of evil? Can one overcome evil before one understands, at least in part, the power and presence of good? Christ Jesus plainly said, "If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin; but now they have no cloak for their sin" (John 15:22). The coming of Christ, then, is the message of

pure salvation for all mankind. But until they receive this message and lovingly obey its demands, the problem of evil for them will remain unsolved.

 

Where God Is, Evil Is Not

Where Christ, Truth, is, God is; and where God is, evil is not. Evil, then, in all its varied phases, is but a seeming absence of God. The warning of Scripture is not against the presence of evil but against believing that evil has presence.

The only possible pretext for believ­ing in evil is to disbelieve in the all-presence of God, good. Does the Christian dignify his religion by thinking and talking about that which has no real presence? Has he any Biblical author­ity for voicing error? Is not God's law just as much opposed to wrong think­ing as to wrong acting? Can one con­tinue to think wrong and at the same time expect to realize the presence of God? Can one think sickly thoughts and at the same time realize the presence of health?

Is not God's presence something more than an idle theory? Is it not something which cannot be annulled by the dictum of the personal senses? Pray, what is meant by these statements of Holy Writ, "My presense shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest" (Ex. 33:14)? and "Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord" (Jer. 23:24). Do such statements suggest to the Christian something purely imaginary? To the Christian Scientist, the all-presence of God is the eternal substance and reality of being. The presence of good is the undeniable absence of sin and disease, else there is no foundation for Christian healing. The heart of man should rejoice to learn that evil is not presence at all, but is simply a suppositions absence of reality. Darkness is not pres­ence, but is only a seeming absence of light, else darkness could never be dis­pelled by the light. God is light, and, since God is all, spiritual light must be the only real presence. All else is but a seeming. Ignorance of God is not pres­ence; but every Christian virtue bears witness to the ever-presence of good.

 

Does Christian Science Heal?

Does Christian Science heal the sick? is a question that is answered today in a most practical way. In all parts of the civilized world may be found living witnesses to the healing power of Chris­tian Science. These recipients of God's blessings will tell you that they owe a debt of endless gratitude, not only to the one God and to His Son, Christ Jesus, but to the beloved Leader of the Christian Science movement, who, in the year 1866, discovered the science of Christianity, and labored unremittingly and unselfishly to make it available to the whole world.

The great Master thought and wrought above and contrary to the senses, and, by so doing, he demon­strated the truth of his own most pro­found statement - "I and my Father are one" - one in quality, but not in quantity. He was maligned and crucified for proving the unity and reality of good.

Mary Baker Eddy, because of her spiritual recognition of the Principle supporting Jesus' healing works, which enabled her to annul sense testimony, likewise aroused the malice and hatred of worldlings. Because she trusted omnipotent Love to fill every human need, she lived to love and to bless all mankind.

One who was for many years a mem­ber of Mrs. Eddy's household, when speaking of her work for humanity, paid this loving tribute to her character: "Our dear Leader was a spiritually minded woman or she could never have wrought this great work for mankind. Her goodness was felt as well as pro­claimed by others and we cannot speak enough in her praise." Christ Jesus said: "I and my Father are one." Mrs. Eddy said, "Follow your Leader only so far as she follows Christ" (Mes. 1902, p. 4). She did not set aside the Saviour. She knew his worth and his work and she tried to bring to the world the im­port of that work.

 

Says Science Heals All

Many thousands of brave, loyal Chris­tian Scientists, in all sections of the world, opposed by both medicine and ecclesiasticism, have achieved such notable success as to place Christian Science healing far beyond the experimental stage. Physical healing in Christian Science, however, is secondary to the conquering of sin, expressed in the deep-rooted vices and passions of the carnal mind. There is not a single known dis­ease or sin that cannot be healed in Christian Science.

This Science is pre-eminently successful in dealing with so-called contagious diseases, where the whole mental and physical manifestation is one of extreme fear. We soon learn in Christian Science that health is far more contagious than disease.  The moment we become con­science of the presence of divine Love, all evidence of disease and all fear of contagion disappear. This proves that dis­ease is mental and that Mind and not matter is its remedy.

No Christian Scientist attaches importance to the microscopic germ theory of disease. On the contrary, all of his time is occupied in magnifying the things that make for health and happiness. Since God never made a disease germ, blind human belief must father it; but belief never gave real power nor life to anything nor to anybody. Then, why flee from a lifeless germ as one chased by ''the sound of a shaken leaf'' (Lev. 26:36)? The so-called disease germ that is supposed to travel from city to city and from continent to continent is nothing more nor less than a disease thought germ; and when Christian people grasp this fact in the light of Christian Science, they will lose their fear and dread of disease, and will deal with the germ theory as a purely human invention.

Unless we intelligently reject the mental suggestion of disease and germs, what is likely to take place? Sooner or later, the mental image of disease will be externalized or shadowed forth on the body. The only way, then, to protect the body is to be ever on guard to dismiss from consciousness the thought of disease and sin the moment it is detected. If we are vigilant in dealing with disease and germs as thought, we shall be saved the experience of a so-called diseased body.

 

Says Germ Theory on Downgrade

The modern germ theory of disease is already well on its way to a state of innocuous desuetude, if reports from medical journals are to be credited. While experimenting upon   subjects selected for the purpose, thousands, and even millions, of different disease germs have been taken into the human system without producing the slightest effect; and at the onset of various disease, no germs whatsoever have been in evidence, all of which goes to prove the fallacy of the theory. Some leading physicians of the country do not hesitate to de­nounce it in forceful terms.

When we learn that God's thoughts, or ideas, are omnipresent and insepara­ble from their divine source; that they alone are really endowed with power and intelligence - thoughts of sin and disease vanish into nothingness. A cor­rect or scientific understanding of God heals because it cannot help healing. Healing through Christ, Truth, takes place as naturally as the shining of the sun. Every ray of spiritual light that floods human consciousness declares the presence, power, and glory of God and His Christ. How, then, can it avoid dispelling the dark shadows of finite sense? Truth heals because it has no affinity with error; Love heals because it has no affinity with hate; Mind heals because it has no affinity with matter.

Treatment in Christian Science means doing something for the sick according to an understood Principle, instead of experimenting upon them with poisonous drugs, and then waiting for days, weeks, and sometimes for months, to see whether they get well. Christian Science treat­ment gives sight to the blind and hear­ing to the deaf by doing something for them which no other form of treatment ever has done or ever can do. When it gives a sufferer immediate possession of health and strength, after materia medica has pronounced its verdict of hope­lessness, it does something for him which physical sense does not and cannot explain.

 

Science Proves Itself

When all manner of diseases are healed in a few Christian Science treat­ments, and fear and sin are destroyed, does this not prove that intelligent ac­tion has been taken in behalf of the af­flicted? When the anxious and fearful mother asks help for her innocent babe, who, the doctors say, cannot possibly survive, and Christian Science gives instant relief by breaking the mesmeric environment of ignorance, fear, and anxiety - who would presume to declare that nothing has been done for the helpless infant? If Christian Science treatment makes a specialty of any one thing, it is in doing something for suffering hu­manity, instead of thrusting God aside in the hour of trouble by bowing down to the verdict of the deceitful senses.

When these senses pass judgment upon man, declaring that he is sick, even going so far as to pronounce the verdict of death upon him, is it the exercise of good common sense to sit idly by and accept the testimony of five witnesses who know positively nothing of the God ''who healeth all thy diseases?'' Or shall we rise in righteous rebellion against such testimony, knowing that the power and presence of God and His Christ are more to a man than anything else in the world? It is the physical senses, re­member, that advise and would compel the use of material remedies; that call sin and disease real, and man a mixture of mind and matter; and that demand complete medical supervision and control of the human body. Is the hand of the Lord shortened that it can not save? God never inspired faith in the use of poisonous drugs. It goes without saying, then, that Christian Science treatment is not founded upon the belief of intelli­gent matter.

Let particular attention be called to the fact that Christian Science treatment is not the erroneous influence of any form of mesmerism or hypnotism. The experience of a young: man seeking help from a professional hypnotist will make this point clear. His very first visit resulted in seeming relief from extreme pain, but the relief was of short duration. Again, he sought the same source for help and with like results. He soon found himself making several calls a day, and each time the interval of apparent ease from pain grew shorter, until finally, after spending several hours a day with his would-be helper, and experiencing no relief at all, he discontin­ued his calls.

 

Says Science Healed Him

At this juncture a friend recom­mended that he try Christian Science. He did so and was quickly and permanently healed. The Christian Scientist, under­standing the omnipotence and omnipres­ence of divine Mind, was enabled to prove to the patient the unreality of pain, and this healed him, and awakened within him a desire to know more about God, something which never takes place under the soporific influence of mesmerism or hypnotism.

From various human quarters there comes the amazing assertion that Chris­tian Science treatment is nothing hut human suggestion. Anyone who knows how to give a scientific treatment knows that suggestion plays no part in it. When one learns how the sick are healed in Christian Science, one will neither ad­vocate nor make use of hypnotic suggestion. Suggestion is the child of self-will: it is a lawless human make-believe, which neither heals nor blesses.

Hundreds of men and women have had their experience with the so-called clever salesman, who persuaded them, against their own better judgment, to purchase some needless article. This phase of willful suggestion may some­times appear to be clever, but it is never Christian. A traveling salesman, for­getting the Golden Rule, and wishing to establish a record for himself, sometimes yields to the temptation to make use of suggestion. What is the result? Word soon reaches him from his house that certain orders taken by him a short time before have been cancelled by letter or wire from the purchaser. If salesmen were Christian Scientists they would surrender their positions rather than stoop to such wrong methods.

With a certain class of businessmen a successful salesman is one who can sell a bill of goods to a dealer who does not need them. Christian Science does not support any such theory nor does it uphold any such practice. A salesman has no right to argue mentally that a certain dealer wants his goods and that he will buy them whether he needs them or not. The use of mental argument by which to accomplish any selfish purpose is prohibited in Christian Science.

Human autocracy, personal domina­tion - all selfish human control, plays no part in legitimate business. Instead of being remedial or constructive, it spells inevitable disappointment and defeat for anyone who continues, either ignorantly or intentionally, to make use of it.

 

Science Not Holding Thought

Asking our friends to hold good thoughts for us is a careless habit. If we want them to treat us, to pray for us scientifically, we should say so. It should be stated, right here, that hold­ing thoughts for persons in order to smooth over their aches and pains, is not the practice of Christian Science. The rule for Christian conduct in Christian Science is to keep one's own thought pure at all times, and to believe only what is spiritually true about God and man. This rule definitely separates Christian Science treatment from the practice of so-called mental science and new thought.

Christian Science so thoroughly re­futes the false claims of clairvoyance, that when a clairvoyant turns to Science for help, he soon loses all faith in his art and forsakes its practice. The sooner such erroneous practice is destroyed, the better for humanity, for some of the saddest of human experiences have come to those who have been induced to be­lieve its misleading divinations.

Christian Science treatment is the plain and simple truth, understood, and demonstrated, which makes free indeed. It is the prayer of those who think and live above the plane of human suggestion. At this particular time, when the thought of the human body is being so abnormally accentuated, when spiritualism and mediumship are so obsessing the public thought, and the unavailing at­tempt is being made to associate the name of our revered leader, Mrs. Eddy, with those who believe in communion with the departed, let it be said that Mrs. Eddy never believed in spiritualism, nor in mediumship; never believed in any communication between the living and the departed; and in proof of these statements, one will find in her textbook, Science and Health, a chapter entitled Christian Science versus Spiritualism. Many spiritualists, after turning to Christian Science, have lost all faith in spiritualism, because Christian Science has enabled them to prove conclusively that Spirit cannot be rightly conceived of as less than infinite.

 

Says Publicity Due to World War

The publicity which is at present being given to spiritualistic claims is, no doubt, one of the experiences made possible by the recent World War, which has called forth the mental anguish of multitudes, longing for communion with their dear departed. If all who are still clinging to this belief of embodied and disembodied spirits, will only look to Christian Science for a present spiritual sense of their loved ones, all fears will soon be wiped away, and the understand­ing will obtain that Spirit is Life, God, and that man, the image and likeness of God, never can be separated from eternal Life.

When it is better understood that man lives, and moves, and has his being in Spirit, and not in a mortal body, the so-called communications of spiritualism will rightfully be classified as sense phenom­ena, unknown to the so-called departed communicator, but belonging wholly to our present plane of existence.

The religion of Christ Jesus, put into daily practice, is the only thing that can rid the world of the chaotic conditions which now seem to prevail. Coincident with the demonstration of the Christian virtues is the disappearance of that greatest curse of the human race - selfishness. Human laws will, no doubt, continue to be enacted during the transi­tional period; but not until the higher law of Spirit, founded upon the First great Commandment, ''Thou shalt have no other gods before me'' is recognized and obeyed, will the reign of human selfish­ness give place to universal peace and brotherhood; to humanity, justice and kindness.

Christ Jesus, the great Wayshower, offers complete deliverance to the world from its social, civil, political, and re­ligious differences. His unparalleled ex­ample of self-sacrifice still shines forth as a beacon light to all who would learn the divine solution for every human problem, be it small or great. Strive, as one may, to find a shorter route, one will discover, sooner or later, that the Christ way of learning Life, so long lost to the world through dogma and persecution, has again been given to hu­manity through the tireless,  unselfish efforts of our beloved Leader, Mary Baker Eddy. She it is who has so quickened the universal consciousness to the need of studying and practicing the precepts of the great Nazarene, that countless thousands have been enabled to say of him, as did Peter of old: "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God" (Matt. 16:16). If the time spent in forcing human theories and opinions upon others could be devoted to a more serious study of the Sermon on the Mount, and to the practice of its precepts, the reign of unselfishness would sooner be recognized in every department of human life. Jesus' teach­ings are proved to be practical in Chris­tian Science. The practice of Chris­tianity has not failed. It was the lack of Christian practice which caused the church to drift into  dogmatism and formalism, and to substitute creeds for a demonstrable religion.

 

Capital and Labor Discussed

The seething conflict between capital and labor is largely an exhibition of human selfishness, due to false standards of education. If the world's educational institutions could be founded upon the Christ, Truth, instead of upon belief in intelligent matter, there would sooner be a race of people, whose only aim in life would be to understand and to do the will of God; to live a life of Christian service.   

The selfish materialist, whether capitalist or laborer, believing in the reality of matter, is living a life of material accumulation and hoarding. What will awaken him? He must learn how to give, how to lend a helping hand to others, how to share with them his own blessings. It is what a man does with his wealth that makes him truly wealthy.

The helpless sick man is just as much a slave to matter. He, too, is hugging his sick beliefs, and constantly adding to them. What will heal him? He must learn how to give, how to express the good, belonging to man's real selfhood. The moment he begins to give out that which is real and true about God and man, he begins to see ''the light of life'' (John 8:12), as expressed by the poet: "Thou art not here for ease or pain, But manhood's glorious crown to gain.''

The arrogant sinner, by constantly indulging his false pleasures, is likewise leading a life of accumulation. What will save him? He, too, must learn how to give, how to express that which be­longs to God's man. The moment he ex­periences repentance and the joy of liv­ing in order to make others happy, he awakens from his selfish dream, to find out that ''the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof'' (Ps. 24:1).

 

Accept Christ

This, then, is the solution of the prob­lem of capital and labor.  Both must accept Christ, Truth, as their schoolmas­ter and learn the lesson of true giving - how to live in order to bless all man­kind. When the Golden Rule is scientif­ically understood and lived by both capital and labor, strikes will be un­known. Any act of coercion which in­flicts untold suffering upon thousands and millions of innocent people is very remote from the Christ method of learn­ing how to live so as to bless and to be blessed.

Both capitalist and laborer can begin today to overcome, intelligently and scientifically, everything that stands be­tween them and the redemptive gospel of service; and this overcoming will result in the adequate adjustment of every hu­man difficulty. In other words, they must learn to live and to love as true Christians. There is positively no other way of pacifying or healing their grievances. Employer and employee alike must understand that they are the servants of Christ, Truth, and are not laboring pri­marily for material gain - for the meat which perisheth, but for the establish­ment of the reign of righteousness on earth. 

Let capital and labor get together in an unselfish desire to do the will of God, and there will be some mental dividends declared and distributed, which will bring about conditions heretofore un­known, and the conviction will obtain that all men are created to live and to let live. More religion and less selfish­ness will solve every world problem.

Under the leavening influence of Christian Science, the problem of uni­versal suffrage is rapidly approaching realization, but it is not yet divorced from some pronounced phases of hu­man selfishness, due to a lack of under­standing of man's relationship to God. Christian Science places no barriers in the way of woman's coming into her own. She has stood for and she still stands for the noblest, the purest and the best in human life, and no imperious attitude of her lordly companion can re­duce her to any lower rank.

 

Holds Solution of Temperance

It was the pure-mindedness of a wom­an that gave birth, centuries ago, to the Saviour of the world. It was the ex­alted spiritual perception of a woman, Mary Baker Eddy, that gave to the world, in modern times, the great spiritual discovery of Christian Science in that won­derful companion piece to the Bible, Science and Health With Key to the Scriptures. One cannot consistently reflect upon the part that woman has ever played in the great humanitarian, educational, and reform movements of the world, without being willing to accord her the right of suffrage. 

The demonstration of Christian Science will prove to be the only possi­ble solution of the temperance problem, because it scientifically destroys the individual's mistaken sense of pleas­ure in matter. World prohibition is not the ultimatum of temperance reform, but it voices the quickened sense of mil­lions who would do all in their power to save the world from widespread debauchery and crime. The present crusade against the demoralizing tendencies of the carnal mind has the unqualified support of every true Christian Scientist, who will patiently await, through prayer and demonstration, the final conquest over all evil.

Christian Scientists have the reputa­tion of being a happy people. They have good reasons for being so - they have learned that the foundation of all true happiness is the expression of di­vine Love. In loving their neighbor as themselves, they have learned to look for the good in their fellowman and to eschew the evil. In the words of Sheri­dan they

 

"Believe not each arousing tongue,

As most weak persons do;

But still believe that story wrong

Which ought not to be true."

 

They believe in that wholesome con­structive, right thinking that constitutes practical religion and enables them to do their full duty to God, to their Leader, to their country, and to all mankind.

In the words of our Leader, "The song of Christian Science is, 'Work - work - work - watch and pray' " (Mes. 1900, p. 2). Christian Scientists, therefore, are joy­ous, willing workers, in fullest sympathy with those high ideals which make for a true Christian democracy, and they are doing their part to have these ideals realized in the preservation of a right­eous government of the people. They know that to work is to pray with the understanding, which means to maintain a right mental attitude at all times. Only by so doing can they make their religion practical and meet the world's great needs.

Its loyal followers recognize in Chris­tian Science the demonstration of true Christianity, and they will press on in their crusade against all evil, until Christ shall reign supreme in the affections of men. Our beloved Leader's prophetic benediction rests upon the hour: "The elements of earth beat in vain against the immortal parapets of this Science. Erect and eternal, it will go on with the ages, go down the dim posterns of time unharmed, and on every battlefield rise higher in the estimation of thinkers and in the hearts of Christians (Misc. p. 383:10-15)."

 

Indiana Daily Times

Under the headline "Religion Is Big Need of World Today"

September 12, 1921