The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1899-10-31

| ing or parts, beginning OF days anu
end of years, who fills all space, is
omnipresent and omniscient, who made
all that was made and pronounced all
that He made good? You believe in
worship, love and adore such a God?
SO do we.
You believe in Jesus Christ, the
only begotten Son of God? SO do we.
You believe the bible is the divinely
inspired revelation of God to man? So
do we. You believe the Ten Command
ments are Gods laws of requirement
and restriction, to be resolutely and
absolutely obeyed, one not less than
the other? So do we You believe that
prayer is both a privilege and duty?
| So do we.
christian science has discovered and
revealed to the world some 80 odd years
ago by Rev. Mary Baker Eddy,
native of New Hampshire, and now
resident of Concord in that state. The
whole philosophy and practice of
christian science is published to the
world in Mrs. Eddys book entitled
Science and Health with Key to the
Scriptures" In the great work of her
devoted and beautiful life she took, as
she declares, herself the bible as her
only guide, and she does not announce
Il any principle, doctrine or practice of
christian science that she did not find,
and that you, each one of you, may
not find in the bible.
THE older christian churches urge
as an objection against what they con-
ceive christian science to be, that 1t is
sheer impiety for any person to assert
| that he is clothed with the power of
| God to heal the sick. The striking
weakness of this objection is that
christian scientists do not profess any
such thing. AS it was in the time of
Jesus, so now the power that heals the
sick is the power Of God. Christian
| scientists assert that the beneficent
| God of 1900 year ago, who so loved the
world that He gave His Son to suffer
whatever might be necessary for him to
suffer to reconcile man to God, to ena-
bic man to know God, is our God to-
day, with all the power, all the tender
ness, all the love, all the sympathy for
man that He manifested 1900 years ago
and that is the exercise of that same
power and love that now makes the
lame to walk and the blind to see.
The only argument that Jesus ever
used to establish his divinity was the
one he sent to the questioning John:
Go tell John the blind receive their
sight, and the lame walk" and that
| is the argument that we use today
to establish the divine origin of chris
| tian science; this makes it a science.
The lame do walk and the blind do see,
and all the logic in the world cannot
lessen this fact
You believe with christian scien-
lists in divine healing, yet you do not
act upon it as they do. Perhaps it is
only after the doctors and patent nos
trums have left you helpless and hope
less that you go to God with your sick
loved ones, and then not quite sure
that He will give you relief, for do you
not pray with medicines in your pocket
and consulting physicians in the
adjoining room? You may believe that
in God you live, move and have your
being, yet do you trust your life and
health entirely in Gods keeping?
Really your lack of trust in Gods
healing power is not very strange; it
is the natural result of the ancestral
opinion l spoke of a minute ago. Our
fathers believed and taught us to be-
lieve, that God makes us sick, that
God makes us blind. and deaf and
lame, and therefore, we can easily un-
derstand how reluctantly and doubt
ingly one who believes that God is the
fruitful source of all his sorrow and
heartache would go to him with a con-
fiding petition for relief for the very
sorrows he has wrought. And here is
the marked distinction between the
old churches thought of God and our
thoughts of Him. Christian scientists
do not believe that God makes you
sick, or blind, or deaf, or halt, but we
do believe that God is infinite love, the
great physician that heals all our
diseases.
"Will any one of the old churches
assert that Jesus did not mean that
his disciples of old time should not do
the works he did, that his declaration
was a promise to the ear to be broken
to the hope. In Jesuss last words on
earth, after the tragedy of the cross
and after the triumph over the tomb,
he said to the eleven, his chosen, faith
full disciples: Go ye into all the world
and preach the gospel to every crea-
ture. And these signs shall
follow them that believe; in my name
shall they cast out devils; they shall
speak with new tongues. they
shall lay hands on the sick and they
shall recover Hear these farewell
words of our ascending Lord, spoken to
you and to me. If you believe in my
name you shall cast out devils. If you
believe in my name you shall lay hands
on the sick and they shall recover.
Christian scientists accept this call
to duty as addressed to them and by
the most crucial test, by thousands up
on thousands of absolute cures cover
ing the whole range of mortal afflic-
ton have demonstrated the efficacy
of metaphysical healing and therefore
the absolute truth of christian science"