St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1905-10-18

or Savior, and that bis way is the only
way Of salvation.
Christian Scientists believe all this,
and yet their sense of Christianity differs
from that of all others. We know that
Christ was and is divine; is our Savior
or Messiah; is the "Way," and we can
prove it. We are confident that when :
this way is scientifically understood and
becomes scientifically operative, it will
manifest its saving efficacy by transform
ing the race.
We believe that Christ Jesus was the
representative of God to humanity; that
he was the voice of wisdom and intelli-
gence, and that he knew more about
God, man and the universe than all other
people combined. We believe he came to
do the will Of God, and to fulfill the law.
What God, and what law? The God
that is good and whose law is the law
of life, health, harmony and holiness. We
believe he came ito seek and to save
that which was lost" and that he
found that (which was lost" when he
found the sinner and the sick man. We
believe that he came to "destroy the
works of the devil" and that he was
"about his Fathers business" while he
was doing it.
Unless he was destroying the works of
the devil when he healed the sick, there
must have been time when he was not
in the iulfllment of his mission, for he
gave much attention to the cure of dis
ease, and himself declared that such heal
ing was part of his works." We be-
lieve this healing was natural and law
full; that all his works were done in ex-
quisite accord with the eternal law of a
changeless God. We believe that the
teaching OF Christian Science through
Mrs. Eddy removes the ministry of Jesus
from the realm Of mystery and brings it
within the range of law, order and
scientific modus operandi. We believe
that God and His Christ are too wise to
be unlawful or to procure or induce or
make use of that which is in contraven-
ton of law. We believe that the TN
limited divine volition does not need to
upset or undo any natural law in order
to do good.
We believe that the Christ ministry is
an object lesson in demonstration Of the
imminent, ever present and ever. available
power of Spirit, God, to destroy evil.
We believe that esus manifested the
supremacy of spiritual law, which is the
law of life, and its power over the
fictitious law of sin and death.
Christian Science teaches that this
proof-the deeds, the achieved results,
the mighty works-is to illustrate the
way of salvation to them that need
salvation, and that Christian salvation
is for the sick man as we'll as the sinner.
All this is different from the belief that
his work is miraculous, meaning that it
was mysterious and in the way of inter-
vention or violation OF law and nature.
Jesus never intimated that his work
was mysterious. On the contrary he
indicated the universal nature OF the
divine animus by declaring: "These
works shall We do" The contrary beliefs
of men which have filtered their way
down through the dark ages lead to the
most absurd conclusions and tax to the
utmost the credulity of man. They pre-
suppose that, after promising for 1000
years that Messiah should come to
save a suffering world, God arranged
and carried out plan of which all future
generations should have right to say:
at is an impenetrable mystery" They
require people to believe that Jesus
largely devoted himself to mighty works
which were of no utility to subsequent
generations OF men, and which have
exhausted their service when people are
induced to believe that it was according
to the divine nature for God to heal the
sick man in one age and refuse or neglect
to heal him in subsequent age. They
require men to believe that God and
Christ, who were willing to save that
which was lost, limited that salvation
to the sinner and Disseminated against
the sick man. They require US to split
the ministry of Christ Jesus in two;
decide that the healing work was with.
out scientific or universal avail; that it
was nothing we can possibly understand
and, lastly, that Jesus did not mean
what he said when he declared that
Christians who understand his Chris.
tianity must preach the gospel and heal
the sick, and that they could do it.
They require us to repudiate the works
of Jesus as the legitimate interpreters OF
his mission and his words. They re-
quire us to believe that in saying heal
the sick, he who shows the way asks us
trary to his way.
II. instead OF regarding evil as a mys.
terious entity, men had understood the
science which detects and correctly desig.
mates the phenomena of evil. such mis-.
conceptions of Christian salvation would
long since have been dissipated.
Sin and disease are in immediate kin
ship. They are allied as cause and
effect. The Scriptural statement that
Through sin came death" is scientific
Every physician knows, or ought tc
know, that anger will arrest digestion
that grief, revenge and envy will impair
the integrity of the body.
If Jesus came to save from one, then hi
cane to save from both. He could not
possibly save from one without saving
from the other. He clearly indicated
this to those who heard, though they
could not understand.
When Jesus healed the sick, did he de
stroy the work of God or devil? Was i
the mission of Jesus to destroy the worl
of God? II sickness is the work Of th
devil then is God for or against it?
God is against and contrary to it, ar
His laws for or against it? If His law
are against it are they available to man
Has God created man who is withou
possible recourse to His law and power
II He has, then why pray for an impossi
J bility?
; Christian Scientists who have been th
first to heal malignant cancers know
: more about the modus than you know
about the circulation of the blood o