Los Angeles herald., 1910-01-09
NO MIRACLE IN THE
HEALING OF SICK BY
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE
ALL APPEARS NATURAL WHEN
UNDERSTOOD
Study of Scriptures Shows That Right
Living and Right Thinking
viii Overcome Forces
of Evil

The work of Christ Jesus as recorded
in the New Testament has been looked
upon as miraculous by Christians and
has been discredited by agnostics and
materialiStS. Perhaps had Christians in
all these centuries been able better to
understand these works and to regard
them as wholly natural effects of di-
vine law these works would have
stirred less unbelief in the non-Chris-
tian. However that may be, the Chris
tian's claim that Jesus works were
supernatural has not always satisfied
even himself; and it is not surprising
that his belief has been resisted more
or less by the world at large. A belief
that sickness and death are divinely or
dained conditions, and that a divinely
sent Saviour was given special power
to suspend the operation of divine law
in order to prove his Messiahship, has
not made a universal appeal; rather
has it failed to satisfy the reason of
many people. Christian Scientists hon
or and love the same Saviour who has
been dear to all Christendom, and this
with an enlightened knowledge that
sickness and death are not because of
divine law, but by reason of not UNDER
standing it; that Gods law never sup
ports but always dissipates, the belief
in trouble and that Christ Jesus
proved his Messiahship not by breaking
law, but by conforming to law and an
nulling the laWless and disorderly.
Their devotion to him as the Master
Christian takes form in the effort to
obey him, and they are finding that
Christian Science makes plain the way
to carry out his commands, for it looks
beyond the person of Jesus to the Prin-
ciple which Jesus himself obeyed.
Both Christian and nonC Christian can
unite, then, in an understanding Of the
divine law SO fully wrought out by
Christ Jesus; and in so doing the one
loses his belief in the miraculous, the
other his unbelief in the actual A right
solution of a mathematical problem,
the performance of a symphony, the
transmission of a wireless message and
the fight of an airship, are marYels to
the one who has not grasped the basis
and law of their demonstration; to the
mathematician, musician, electrician
and aviators, these wonders are natural
and normal. He neither believes blind
ly in them nor scoffs at them; he know
the truth about them, and so knowing,
can demonstrate increasingly their pos
sibilities and utility. So the Christian,
leaving behind him mere belief, and the
agnOstic, losing his ignorance, can
learn the truth about Jesus work as
the Science of christianity unfolds it;
and in this knowledge divine law is
derision disappear.
When the healing work of Jesus
ceases to appear miraculous and begins
to seem natural, the point of view has
been so enlarged and uplifted that the
same work becomes in a measure pos
sible to his followers. No Christian
claims perfectly to follow Chrst's COM
mands, nor do Christian Scientists at
their present point of progress; but the
Christian Scientist knows better than
he did formerly what the commands
mean and is obeying them more con-
sistently than he used to do. He has
become convinced that he cannot sue
ceed with Christianity through failure
to live it, any better than he could
demonstrate art or mechanics by neg
| lecting to apply himself to the study
and work they demand. While mis-
takes may instruct the honest man, vet
In the last analysis he really learns by
succeeding, not by failing; and most
certainly he helps others by successful
" doing things as they should be done.
Jesus and his disciples cast out sin and
healed disease; they did not resign
| themselves to failing in these matters,
y nor preach. a philosophy Of fcontentment