Los Angeles herald., 1908-10-19
HOW CHRISTIAN
SCIENCE AROSE
ORIGIN AND TENETS SHOWN
IN DETAIL
REV. A. r. VosBuReH SPEAKS TO
LARGE AUDIENCE
Traces Development of Movement
from the Time When, Forty
Years Ago, Mrs. Eddy
Escaped Death

Rev. Arthur r. Vosburgh, c. S. B.,
spoke at the Temple Auditorium yes
terday afternoon. his subject being
christian Science" An immense
crowd was in attendance, many being
unable to obtain admittance. The ad-
dress will be repeated this evening at
the same place at s o'clock. The speak
er said in part:
christian Science has for its con-
firmation not theory but experience.
Its growth has come through the prac-
tical good it has achieved, and it's fol-
lowers have been won by the physical
moral and spiritual healing and re-
demption 1t has brought.
"It came to light as a discovery a
little over forty years ago, ana tnlS
through a definite experience. In an
hour of mortal extremity, Wheel all
human resources failed, woman re-
quested to be left alone with her Bible
and her God She read in the New
Testament of Jesus healing the man
with a withered hand, and she came
into the realization that the same
Christ who healed then is present to
heal today; and in that realization sne
rose from her bed, well. That hour OF
recovery was an hour of discovery;
and the substance of that discovery
was, as she has described 1t, that All
causation is mind, and every effect a
mental prenomenon.'
"Since that hour Christian Science
has travelled far and wrought much.
Its discoverer did not, at first, fully
understand the definite application and
statement of what she had found. She
only knew that Gods healing was the
power of divine mind, working through
spiritual law. To find its fuller un-
derstanding, she gave her next three
years to a study of the Bible; and out
of her study and seeking came the
ability to heal and teach Others and
finally the publication of the Christian
Science textbook, Science and Health,
with Key to the Scriptures Today
this book and it's author, Mary Baker
Eddy, are known to the world; and
each advancing year is bringing to
them larger, richer need of appre-
citation, as there is coming to be more
fully known the measureless good their
teachings have wrought.
Lies in Mental Realm
christian Science has discovered
and demonstrated that the cause and
cure of disease lie in the mental realm;
that evil thinking and fear produce
disease, and that right thinking BAN
ishes disease. In other words, the
human body manifests the conditions of
the mentality which animates and con-
trolls it. If this human mentality is
filled with fear, filled whit beliefs of
the power of matter to make man sick,
filled with the poison Of lust. hatred,
envy, discord, revenge, these condi-
tions are certain to find their reaction
in the body, and are liable at any time
to produce their legitimate result in
some pronounced disease. Whenever
and wherever disease appears, it means
solely that some wrong condition of
thought, some abnormal belief or fear
is present in consciousness, and is act
ing to prevent the free consciousness
of life's activity in harmony and health.
"Thus the healing of disease means
the banishing of these false and bane-
full beliefs and fears and here it is of
vital Importance that our standpoint
and method be right. 1t is obvious that
all the imperfections and frailties of
humanity arise from the finite, fallible,
imperfect conditions of the human
mentality. To seek to correct these
discordant elements by any form of
suggestion or hypnotic control is to
trust the healing of one finite, fallible,
imperfect human mind to another
equally finite, fallible and imperfect.
Such practice is neither scientific nor
Christian. That alone can be scientific
which affords a perfect principle to cor
rect all that is imperfect; that alone
is Christian which finds this healing
principle in the mind of Christ.
1.-THE foundation of all human wrong
and woe is the belief in some life, in
telligence and power apart from God.
This belief, as long as it obtains, pre-
vents the realization that
God Is the Only Mind
seriousness of infinite good, and unfolds
itself in the whole range and activity
of evil. Now it is a law of thought that
whatever is accepted as an unques-
toned belief will seem real, until the
belief is destroyed. And so this Adam
belief in some life, intelligence and
power separate from God has become
imposed upon the whole human race,
has been accepted as the knowledge
of good and evil and has wrought the
calamity and confusion of mankind.
'Tn this it is clear that the work of
Christian Science is in nowise hypnotic
suggestion or mesmeric control, and 1t
cannot be too strongly emphasized that
Christian Science is the polar opposite
of animal magnetism in it's every form.
Because it's working is not that of
human personality but of divine prin-
ciple, the power it demonstrates is not
OIL man out OIL 1Ou. NelIneI, OH Lile
other hand, is Christian Science identi-
cal with what is called faith cure, for
while it teaches us to rely solely on God
for healing this reliance is not a blind
faith, but a confidence based on an un-
of God and of the spiritual
law that heals. In it's understanding
of cause and method of cure, the Chris
tian Scientist stands on very different
ground from the faithhealer, since
Christian Science brings unmistakable
proof that all causation is mental, not
physical.
what, then, is the means by which
we may reach our limitless divine re-
sources of life and love? There is only
one means which the Bible commends,
which Jesus emphasizes and which
Christian Science recognizes-and that
means is prayer. Prayer is that which
makes the resources of God available"