Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1908-02-02
nY AnrREp rARIow. G. 5. D.

Mars Hill and said, Ye men OF
Il Athens, L perceive that in all things
We are too superstitious. For as |
passed by and beheld your devotion,
found an altar with this inscription,
ITO the Unknown God Whom there
fore We ignorantly worship d him de-
clare I unto you (Acts IL, 23)
1t is we'll to have faith even in the
absence of knowledge, but it is far bet
ter to have understanding. ones conn
dence in any given thing is greatly IN
creased with an exact knowledge OF II.
Surely if God is a Being to be APP
preached and trusted by mortals II IS
needful that He should be well known
by them. The statement which PAU
made could be applied to this age. To
say. aye are too superstitious" is equiv
alent to declaring, Ye know too little
We depend too much upon blindly
drifting through the world instead OF
learning the truth and laboring intel
ligently.
Science is defined as knowledge;
comprehension or understanding OF
facts or principles; what is known con-
corning a subject; a branch of knowl-
edge" Christian Science is the exact
understanding of all the essentials of
Christianity. The Master declared,
This is life eternal, to know thee, the
only true God and Jesus Christ whom
thou hast sent" To have a correct,
positive, certain sense of God in con-
tradistinction to a mere opinion as to
what He is, and to understand His son,
His offspring, as His image and like
ness, and to deport ones self accord
ingly, lifts one above mortal frailty
into that state wherein existence is
substantial and permanent. The sole
duty of the Christian is to manifest the
will of God, to be God-like-to be the
image and likeness of God 1t is there
fore apparent that we must understand
what God is, His very nature and es-
sence, in order that we may know what
we have to do to be like Him. One
whose life conforms to the divine model
supersedes the necessity of creeds and
doctrines. Such one is guided Alright
by the Principle of righteousness and
has no need of rules and regulations.
He who has comprehensive and clear
understanding of God, and striving to
be like Him, shapes his course accord
ingly. makes rapid progress heaven
ward; for he moves intelligently, not
altogether experimentally. Each step
is a stride for eternity, and he needs
never to retrace. AS the study of math-
ematics includes the use of the ex-
amples for practice, so the study of
Christian Science includes the demon
stratiop OF it's teaching. In her text
UOth, MIS- E1QQy ndS Truly WIlllcil,
I'VE must recollect that Truth is de-
monstrable when understood, and that
good is not understood until demon
strated." No one can be sure of his
understanding of this Science without
using his knowledge, for the results of
practice are the proofs of his under
standing.
We trust that we have made it clear
to our readers that the first lesson in
14fe Cfafn 10 frfsn 7raff af
God. If the nature and essence of the
Creator are clearly understood, the
mode and method of His creating and
the nature and constituency of His Gre
alton are also made clear. correct
sense of God in all His characteristics
and attributes-a knowledge of all
there is to learn about Him-includes
an understanding of how and what He
creates.
The major premise of the Christian
Science syllogism is the declaration,
God is Spirit" The minor premise is
its likeness-the Scriptural statement,
80 God (Spirit) created man in His
own image, in the image of God Gre
ated He him." Those who will indorse
these Biblical texts as true, and adhere
20 them consistently, must of necessity
accept the entire teaching of this Sci
ence. II God is Spirit, and man is the
product or likeness of Spirit, the logical
conclusion is that man is spiritual and
not material Very few find fault with
the teachings of Christian Science in
respect to God and the original man as
having been made in Gods image and
likeness, but some are not yet Wiling
to continue faithful to these premises
and accept the logical deductions there
from. Christian Science bases its
teachingT in respect to God and crea-
ton upon the Scriptures, and sticks to
its text-builds consistently with its
foundation.
A study of this Science necessitates
a correlative study of the Bible upon
which IT depends for it's theory. For
this reason we quote frequently from
the Holy Scriptures.
Jesus teaching: "God is Spirit is
as radically contradictory to the testi-
mony of the five personal senses as any
Science textbook. These senses de-
clare, 1 do not and viii not believe that
God is omnipresent Spirit: I do not
see any Spirit. He who believes that
deity is Spirit does so In direct contra
diction Of material sense and is to that
extent in harmony with Christian Sci
ence. If he is willing to belittle the
personal senses sufficiently to accept
the Biblical definition of God, he only
that system OF scientific Christianity
which is builded on this fundamental
lesson. 1t is not profitable to contend
for the testimony of the personal
senses since they give and teach exclu-
sively of the temporal, transient, and
lieeting? Material sense gives neither
place nor reality to Spirit nor to spir-
ituaI things, while spiritual understand
ing gives neither place nor reality to
material things. Paul said, THE flesh
Iusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit
against the flesh, for they are contrary,
the one to the other" We are called
upon to choose this day which we will
serve, the claims of matter, or the facts
of Spirit. INC man can serve two
masters"
Reality and Unhealthy
However, the abstract statement that
matter is unreal needs the fuller expla-
nations gIven in the body of the Chris
tan Science textbook. This we might
also say of the question of the unreal
fty of sin and disease. In Science we
study reality from a spiritual view
point, making only that real which is,
to use the words of Science and
Health eternal and incapable of dis
cord and decay" Mortal existence is
but a dream which soon passes away
because It is a dream and not a reality.
"The place which has known it, knows
If no more" It vanishes into its ma
ar,,oue .ul1fIQ Shirt and qpfF-