There are sinners in all societies, and it is vain to look for perfection
in churches or associations. The life of Christ is the perfect example; and
to compare mortal lives with this model is to subject them to severe
scrutiny. Without question, the subtlest forms of sin are trying to force
the doors of Science and enter in; but this white sanctuary will never
admit such as come to steal and to rob. Through long ages people have
slumbered over Christ's commands, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the
gospel;" "Heal the sick, cast out devils;" and now the Church seems almost
chagrined that by new discoveries of Truth sin is losing prestige and
power.
The Rev. Dr. A.J. Gordon, a Boston Baptist clergyman, said in a sermon:
"The prayer of faith shall save the sick, and it is doing it to-day; and as
the faith of the Church increases, and Christians more and more learn
their duty to believe all things written in the Scriptures, will such
manifestations of God's power increase among us." Such sentiments are
wholesome avowals of Christian Science. God is not unable or unwilling to
heal, and mortals are not compelled to have other gods before Him, and
employ material forms to meet a mental want. The divine Spirit supplies all
human needs. Jesus said to the sick, "Thy sins are forgiven thee; rise up
and walk!" God's pardon is the destruction of all "the ills that flesh is
heir to."
All power belongs to God; and it is not in all the vain power of dogma and
philosophy to dispossess the divine Mind of healing power, or to cast out
error with error, even in the name and for the sake of Christ, and so heal
the sick. While Science is engulfing error in bottomless oblivion, the
material senses would enthrone error as omnipotent and omnipresent, with
power to determine the fact and fate to being. It is said that the devil is
the ape of God. The lie of evil holds its own by declaring itself both true
and good. The path of Christian Science is beset with false claimants,
aping its virtues, but cleaving to their own vices. Denial of the
authorship of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" would make a
lie the author of Truth, and so make Truth itself a lie.
A distinguished clergyman came to be healed. He said: "I am suffering from
nervous prostration, and have to eat beefsteak and drink strong coffee to
support me through a sermon." Here a skeptic might well ask if the
atonement had lost its efficacy for him, and if Christ's power to heal was
not equal to the power of daily meat and drink. The power of Truth is not
contingent on matter. Our Master said, "Come unto me, all ye that labor and
are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Truth rebukes error; and
whether stall-fed or famishing, theology needs Truth to stimulate and
sustain a good sermon.
A lady said: "Only He who knows all things can estimate the good your books
are doing."
A distinguished Doctor of Divinity said: "Your book leavens my sermons."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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