Los Angeles herald., 1908-08-02
INFINITE LOVE
IN HIS MISSION
SALVATION FOR PEOPLE OF
THIS LIFE
Christian Science Teachings Lead to
Abolition of Palm, Poverty and
crIme-Fulfills Hope Of
Relief from Evil
BY SAMUEL GREENWOOD

Ut ia not so many years since
noted infidel delivered a lecture
II on the question what must l 90
70 he saved?" The published report
of the lecture was interspersed with
the bracketed comments OF ms auol, ,
lauehter." "roars of laughter etc.
Think Of a set of mortals, conscious
Of the sad need of the world, making
merry over the question that the re-
lanfless curse of sin and suffering has
wr,,ng from agonized lips since the
beginning of timel Yet, In spite OF
their untimely mirth, In spite or the
speakers ridicule, there must nave
been in the hearts of both lecturer
and neople a pathetic yearnlng to
know. after all, what can deliver man
kind from their unhappiness and mis-
cry.
in every n-burdened, pain-raeked
heart, and God pity those who make
Gghg of its prayer, or VINO turn asiue
The anxious hope of humanity as nav
inc no possible fulfilment on earth. If
the rnwonted merriment in this in
stance was over the spectacle of a
theology that assumes to interpret the
purpose and will of God, yet Wfllch
offers no remedy or redemption 10
mortals in their present woes, when
gives them no hope of deliverance uhtll
evil. having accomplished their DOOM
has no more that it can do then these
brackets had better have been used
for tears. There is no sadder thing IN
ali Christendom than the belief that
The Christ, redemptive Truth, has come
md gone and left mortals helpless, at
the mercy of pain and sorrow and
death. If atheists laugh, angels might
wei weep over such a pitiful belief.
The intensity of human SUFFERING is
such as to melt even adamant hearts
to sympathy, or almost to excuse the
scoffers derision of a religious behet
whose false sense of God would keep
him an Indifferent spectator in heaven
while all goes wrong in the word.
Each generation of mortals has oeen
ushered into the endurance Of unut-
terable pain and poverty and crime
and has passed out with note OF de-
spair for all its unanswered prayers,
its unheeded tears, its passionate out
fruitless longings, its unfulflled hopes
of freedom from evil. Is there then
nothing to save men from their
troubles, no succor from earthly Inlsers
les, no redeemer from the doom OF
mortality, no truth to remedy error, no
God?
The common assumption that saliva
ton concerns only the soul, and that
mainly in the hereafter, does not cover
the ground OF mems needs here. This
mistaken belief results from the mis-
conception that life is now embraced
in materiality, thar men are subject
to it's supposed laws and conditions,
and that they cannot escape from its
grasp except through death. 1t is i'm
possible that death could acquaint men
with God who is Life. Jesus never
taught this theory, it has no scriptural
l1faf1d q n
opinion. Religion has too long been
rocked in the cradle of this belief, and
sIumbered over the possibility of a
present-day salvation. The theories
which deny to mortals the hope of ever
being redeemed from death, instead OF
submitting to it, are not Christian, but
pagan. Jesus prayer, THY will be
done on EARTH" rebukes every such be-
lief, and declares the possibility of so
fulfilling the fathers will as to be as
safe and happy and immortal on earth
as in heaven; that is, so to understand
Gods ever-presence that heaven ana
earth would be one.
The advocates of salvation in flu
ture world are seldom ardent for its
realization, preferring as a rule to re-
main in the flesh and suffer it's ills,
rather than to enter paradise by the
door of death. The idea of a post
mortem heaven, although it may look
we'll IN poetry inspires little real COi-
fidence and does not bring its believ-
ers any nearer to God here. The re-
ligion that has nothing better to OFFER
men in their struggles with evil than
the hope of a heaven in the clouds,
which a single false step at the last
may forfeit forever, should begin over
again to learn what God, infinite Love,
is, and what was involved in the mis-
sion of Jesus. To say that death is a
means of grace, or of bringing men
into at-one-ment with God, or that 1t
is the way to perpetual health, happl-
ness and life, is to deny the success OF
Jesus work in bringing the recognition
of eternal life to men. The rear OF
death is the STAKEHOLDER of the race
but this would not be so If death were
the open sesame to eternal bliss.
Get Freedom Here
Salvation as demonstrated by Jesus
covers all human needs, here as wen as
hereafter; and religions which claim
to interpret his teachings should not
define 1t in any less absolute and com
prehensive sense. Ones religion, II
true and practiced, should not leave him
in the same degree that II FOUND MIN
in the grasp of evil and disease. Ii
should be effecting his escape from
these conditions in sufficiently pro-
gressive degree to prophesy his com
plete deliverance. But is 1t not Toe
true that the experience of the average
religionist shows him to be at the
mercy of the ills of the flesh to the
same extent as his unbelieving brother
And the pity of it is that he does no,
seem to expect his religion to help MN
IN overcoming these things.
Poverty. disease and misfortune seen
10 afflict believer and inf1del alike, anC
they both look upon these condltlon'
as the natural order Of things.
should be evident that something Il
radically wrong either with Christian
jty or with his belief of 1t, II a Chris
tian must continue to suffer as FORMER
Nv, If one is not becoming more Christ
like. and so gaining the power to ruin
his high rofesson, he has not yet be
gun to be a Christian in the sense tina
Jesus was. If ones religion does no
make him better acquainted with Goo
while on earth he is no better off thar
one who processes no religion at all.
The need of mortals is not so mucl
for that which Is to help them here
after as for that which will help then
to freedom here, which will relieve thei
burdens and redeem and glorlfy life IL
the present. What ever will do thii
can safely be trusted for whatever ma.
be coming in the future. All the woe
of which mortals have knowledge per
tain to this present life, while the sal
walton therefrom, which is the objec
of all religion, is said to be obtainabl'
only beyond the grave. If the situa
ton were not so sad and serious, on
might almost join in the infiders mer
rinent at such ludicrous shift on tn
part of q rnan-made theology to explain
Gods plan of human salvation.
This Life Worth While