St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1902-11-05

our thought, Christian Science is re-
lgion and only a religion; the gentle,
beautiful hopeful religion of love that
Jesus preached and taught and prac-
ticed. If God is spirit, infinite in good
ness mercy, truth and love, then 1t is
not difficult to understand lin fact we
cannot avoid the conclusiOn) that lie is
the only God, the only Spirit, the only
Good Truth and Love, the first and
only cause, the principle of all that is,
if God is all then, of course, He is every
where present; always with us; IA
circle, the center of which is everywhere
and the circumference nowhere"
With this concept of God we easily can
understand how He is in absolute reality
"our strength and our Redeemer," in
whom literally 1--WE live and move and
have our being" And we may easily
know also that man-God's mans not
a mold of clay, fashion of matter, but
is spiritual; the image and likeness OF
Spirit, the reflection of God, and hence
abdes in health, truth, eternal life.
Christian Scientists simply are trying
to live the life Jesus lived. His mission
was not only to preach the Gospel, but
to heal the sick. This was the prophecy
of Isaiah concerning Him. the prophecy
Jesus declared fulfilled by His own
presence on the earth. The declaration
of Jesus to His disciples, ''the works
that do We shall do Also" was made to
the people of this day as certainly as to
the apostles and the people among
whom they wrought; and Christian
Scientists have demonstrated that they
have been included in this declaration
of the Master by accomplishing many of
the marvellous works that Jesus did.
1t must not be understood that Chris
tian Scientists heal, or pretend to heal,
the sick by virtue of any power of their
own, but only by the virtue of the power
of God. They do ungrudgingly all that
Jesus gave them to do, and rely unfal-
teringly upon all the promises that He
made. They believe, too, in the inexor'
able law: "With what measure ye
mete it shall be measured to you again.
that you cannot enthrone human reason
without in the same measure dethroning
God that if you give shadow for sub
stance you will receive the bitterness of
hollow seeming for abiding reality.
With the Holy Scriptures as their
guide to eternal life, and the Great Mas
ter as their teacher and eXemplar, Chris
tian Scientists hold, with much force of
reason, that theirs is the religion that
Jesus established, taught and practiced.
The pathway of Christian Science has
not been smooth and carpeted with
flowers thornS and crosses have every
where beset it, as long ago they Stung
and held in cructiXion the sweet Herald
of "peace ON earth"
Christian Science meets tonight, and
for 30 years has met, the ecclesiastical
antagonism that every new phase of
religion or new thought of God has
been compelled to encounter; but sooner
or later, in Gods own time, the clouds
will break, and crowned and glorifed,
the truth will be seen, like star,
dwelling apart" in its own glory
always its own.
We do not complain in bitterness of
the opposition that Christian Science
has met. 1t has simply been the asser-
ton of inherited belief that has for cen.
turtles antagonized every new thought
of God. Our fathers endured this before
us, and their fathers before them; yet
the world has constantly grown brighter
and freer and better. 1t is our duty to
add to the good that came to us from
the generations gone, and to it our chill,
dren will add still another good, born of
the greater light of their own day. until,
bye and bye-free from superstition and
superior to fear-"the mystery of godli-
ness" will be lost in the sweet simplicity
of perfect love.
Intellectual integrity is not easily at
tanned. We must, though ever so reluc-
family, concede the fact that while it is
comparatively easy to appear honest
with our neighborS it is extremely diff
cult to know that we are honest with
! ourselves. In some tomorrow we will
recognize the incompatible deception
practiced by men upon themselves in the
l vain effort to find logic of saying more
: potent than the logic of doing.
. Christian Science is not a religion Of
! beliefs but of works; not of theories, but
! of demonstrations. There is nothing
concerning which people so persistently
deceive themselves as about their relig.
= ious beliefs. 1t is so much easier to say
) than to do; and then one cannot know
what he believes, in the sense in which
= Jesus used that word, except by what
;, he does.
Belief is more than intellectual con.
; viction; it includes the elements of trust
= faith, reliance; hence, the repeated assur.
= ance of Jesus, SPY their works We shall
. know them"
! What man says he believes is not in.
- frequently the very antipodes of what he
. really believes. For instance, if man
q . says he believes that, 'In God we live
= and move and have our being" and then
. resorts to druggist, doctor or climate
o for life and health you willk at once
y y that he has mistaken his belief. Jesus
= came recognizing God as the healer of
: all our diSeaSe-as our life, strength and
: redeemer; and, knowing this, by the
. power of God he healed the sick, bound
y up the broken-hearted, gave hope fol-
y despair, song for anguish, life for death.
- These were the works of the Master, the
beautiful works by which Jesus the
Christ demonstrated his own divinity
= and the power of God to heal the sick.
Christian Science was discovered, redis.
y covered, or uncovered some thirty odd
g years ago by the Rev. Mary Baker Eddy,
! a native of New Hampshire, and still an
. honored, loved and revered citizen of
y that historic state.
y 1t may strike you as a little strange
. and yet it is strangely true that one of
, the objections urged against Christian
, Science is that it is the product of a
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