Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 102, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 May 1919 — CHRISTIAN SCIENCE [ARTICLE]

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE

SYNOPSIS OF LECTURE DELIVERED BY REV. ANDREW J. GRAHAM, C. S. The following is a synopsis of the lecture delivered by Rev. Andrew J. Graham, C.’S. member of the Board of Lectureship of the Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Mass., delivered at the Christian Science church in Rensselaer, Munday evening, April 28. His sbuject was “Christian Science: The Vision of Christ Jesus.” Christian Science not only teaches, but demonstrates divine aid, thereby adhering strictly to the declaration of Scripture: “I will show thee my faith by my works.” Many thousands of written testimonials of healing and regeneration, covering the last fifty years are preserved and accessible; current testimonials of redemption from sickness and sin appear regularly in the Christian Science Journal, Christian' Science Sentinel, and the Christian Science Heralds in French and German; each Wednesday evenings in all Christian Science meetings are heard the living voices of grateful men and. women testifying to the power of Christian Science to heal and to save; throughout the world, beyond broad waters and behind lofty mountains, in great cities and quiet hamlets, by the. domestic fireside and in trench and in hospital, men and women, confiident and calm, joyous and active, are found declaring that through Christian Science they have come to know, and in some measure Wave been able 1 increasingly to demonstrate, that God is a sure remedy for every ill, here and now. When one finds the correct answer to a problem in mathematics he is certain the rule by which he works is true. So when through the application of the Principle of Christian Science one sees the destruction of disease and mental perversity, he knows that the rule of healing as taught by Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, is true. .The test set up by Jesus the Christ is this: “By their fruits ye shall know them.” On page 313 of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” Mrs, Eddy writes: “Jesus of Nazareth was the most scientific man that ever trod the globe. He plunged beneath the material surface of things, and found the spiritual cause.” Again on page 476 of the same book she 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.” The vision of Christ Jesus, therefore, was not to him a deferred fact; it was seen and known as present. THE VISION EXTENDED

The workable knowledge of the omnipotence and omnipresence of God was not confined to the consciousness of Jesus the Christ. He left witnesses to himself, empowered to extend and to manifest the works of healing and regenerate cyi which he had done. For a long time after Jesus had vanished from sight, the divine command: “Heal the sick,. . . raise'the dead,” was obeyed and fulfilled. “Like trailing clouds of glory,” the faith and works of the primitive Christians were as a light shining in heathen darkness. The ardent faith of the Christians which had thriven under merciless persecutions was caught in the insidious snare of formalism. Its light began to wane, its vision vanished, and it sank approximately to the world’s level, where it seemed to sleep for a thousand years, while every phase of sin and tyranny was practiced in its name. These centuries constitute what may properly be called the Dark Ages. A theoretical system of salvation had thrust itself between God and the individual man. “And it was night.”

THE RE-DAWN In 1366 A.D. John Wycliffe, called the Morning Star of the Reformation, was at the zenith of his influence. An article in the Encyclopedia Britannica which gathers up the thought of many scholars says: “He (John Wycliffe) may be at least claim to have discovered thesecret of the immediate dependence of the individual Christian Upon God, a relation which needs no mediation of any priest, and to which the very sacraments of the Church, however desirable, are not essentially necessary.’* This spirit of the Reformation began to do away with serfdom and feudalism and to emphasize the right of the individual. It broke somewhat the bondage in which the human mind had been held, and thought thus released became active in many directions. Christian Scientists are not unmindful of, but recognize, the value of this Reformation movement to human history which prepared mankind for the reception again of the unnutilated gospel. They ackwnoledge the Reformation stood for activity in the right direction, but was not radical enough to remove all the misconceptions about God with which ,the Dark Ages had beclouded thought. * This work remained to be accomplished by a movement more spiritual in its perception, more comprehensive in its understanding- of the gospel. ’ ' > In the year 1866 Mary Baker Eddy, whom medical skill had failed to relieve of a serious physical trouble, was instantaneously healed through reading the Scriptures. Christian

Scientists know that with her healing began the modern fulfillment of Jesus’ promise: “When he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth.” Instead of taking her physical healing and losing herself in the throng of the unthankful, her gratitude to God and compassion for suffering humanity led her to investigate and to mediate. On page 109 of “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” Mrs.„ Eddy writes: "For three years after my recovery, I sought the solution of this problem of Mind-healing, searched the Scriptures and read little else, kept aloof from society, and devoted time and energies to discovering a positive rule.” Thif’rule she discovered, stated, elucidated, and demonstrated, over and over again, in healing the sick, thus reinstating the most practical feature of primitive Christianity. MARY BAKER EDDY

A Christian Scientist does not give his testimony to exploit himself, but to express gratitude for the great things divine Love has done for him. The psalmist expresses this desire in the words: “I have not concealed thy loving-kindness. . .from the great congregation.” I have alluded tojny own healing out of the deep'est gratitude to the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science. I had hated her without a cause, I had ascribed to her base motives, and I had conceded to her no acknowledgment of good. I opened the book, “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” and read on page 1: “The prayer that reforms the sinner and heals the sick is. an absolute faith that all things are possible to God, — a spiritual understanding of Him, an unselfed love.” My heart was moved. I said to myself, Only one who has lived near to God could write thus. .With that honest recognition of justice to Mrs. Eddy, the healing came. About six months' afterwards I began a careful study of her life. From various sources I found an illuminating mass of unquestionable testimony to her worth. In studying the records of the courts to which Mrs. Eddy appealed in order to protect her writings and maintain the truth of Christian Science unadulterated, there was revealed corroborative evidence of her unselfed love for humanity. This candid investigation clarified my thought and deepened my conviction already formed that Mrs. Eddy was the most xpmarkable woman since the birth of Christianity.