The weekly chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Craig County, Okla.) 1905-1913, 1911-03-31

cord and suffering, and ! was forced
to go to church where l heard time
and again. that some or all of the mis-
cry sent upon the world was the visit
alton of God. My mother, honest,
earnest Christian worker in her church
knowing my suffering, knowing 1t
might have a fatal end at any mo-
ment, tried the best way she knew to
make me think that in this awful suf-
fering laid upon me, God in his wis
dob was preparing me for better
things Was teaching me to bear bur
dens so that, in a future state, l might
have joy and peace and be fit to dwell
with Him in Paradise | was only a
child. and that statement did not ap-
peal to me- The only thing | knew
was while | saw other boys happy and
free and having a good time, | my
self was unable to do anything but
suffer. And as | heard it more and
more / ceased TO love God, because
/ believed Him to be the author of all
|
my sufferings, and l felt that had
not done anything that should cal it
down upon me. And then Christian
Science came into my life and taught
me its mission of health. 1t told me
the belief that God has taught to do
with suffering is absolutely false and
untrue and an offence against Him.
Christian Science came to me and said
audibly and mentally! Don't you
know that God has stretched out un-
derneath the everlasting arms so that
you shall not dash your foot against
stone, shall not stumble and shall
not fall? Don't you know that the
Bible teaches us that God said. Come
unto me, and l will give rest?"
Don't you know that as you turn to
him you will find him not a mighty
potentate afar off, but a tender, low
ing, passionate Father, right at your
side, very present help at your side,
a very present help in trouble? And
don't you know that in proportion as
you accept the knowledge that God is
Love, the very radiance and glory of
His divine effulgence will descent up
on you, and make you free? And it
has made me free. 1t touched me and
cleansed me from the sin of believing
that God, the one whose eyes behold
everything and yet is "of puer eyes
than to behold evil, and canst not look
on iniquity," as Habakkuk tells us, had
aught to do with my suffering, or with
any suffering The chief mission of
Christian Science is to show to every
man, woman and child just as it did
to me, that the belief that suffering is
from the omnipotent and all powerful
God is untrue, giving surcease from
the suffering which legitimately goes
with any such belief
Right at this point the question
naturally arises who does the Chris
| tian Scientist mean when he says that
sin, disease and death are unreal? Do
Christian Scientists mean to say that
there is no such thing? Do the Chris.
tian Scientists, in saying there is no
such thing as sin, give to the world
the power to say and do anything evil
and then claim sin in nothing The
law of justice demands compensation
of mankind before it may rise higher
in right apprehension of Truth, and en-.
forces penalties to force progress along
right lines
The law of God never pardons sin
in the manner we have always be.
lieved but in its changeless and mex
orable nature. demands that sin be
forsaken before the penalty can be
escaped thus eliminating the appar-
ent cause and effect at one and the
same time.
Christian Science on this question
as to what constitutes sin goes deem
er than any teaching that the world
accept stoday. Christian Science
teaches us that a man may seem to
keep every one of the moral laws of
the land! He may seemingly be one
of the sweetest characters that the
world knows. and yet be a sinner.
The Bible teaches that we shall be
held accountable for every idle word.
and surely every word that we utter
which does not glorify God. in some
way, is an idle word, And what are
words? Simply the outward manifes-
tation of the thoughts which precede
them. Therefore that statement means
we shall be held accountable for every
thought we think that does not glorify
God and His Christ Our Master taught
that the thought must be made right
for he said, if one looks with adulter-
Gus eyes, he is an adulterer. There
fore. if it is true that the thought of
adultery constitutes adultery, it is true