CHRISTIAN SCIENCE.

Taranaki Daily News, 4 September 1926, Page 22

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE.

PRACTICAL APPLICATION. SOLUTION TO WORLD PROBLEMS. LECTURE BY MR. JOHN R. DUNN. A lecture on Christian Science was delivered in New Plymouth on Thursday night by Mr. John Randall Dunn, C.L.8., of Boston, Massachusetts, a member of the Board of Lectureship of the Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, in Boston, Massachusetts. A summarised report of the address is as follows: You have noticed many times, without doubt, a certain inscription over exits from buildings and cars which reads: ‘‘This Way Out.” Often have I wished that I might write below this the words “Christian Science,” for every student of this great subject realises more and more that the understanding and practical application of the Science of Christianity affords the only definite way out of the many .problems which confront and perplex humanity today. Nineteen centuries ago the great Teacher of Nazareth pointed the way out of human discords, and rightfully has ever been called "‘The Way-shower.” But have mortals really accepted Jesus as the practical Wayshower out of aught but sin? Have they looked on him as the greatesthealer of disease that the world has ever known? Have they’ realised that on the shores of the Galilean Lake were given scientific rules which, when put into operation, would solve here and now the knotty problems of human existence, of capital and labour, of supply and demand, problems of men and of nations? In a word, have mortals been turning naturally to the teachings of Jesus to find present-day salvation from evil? INSTANCE OF JESUS’ HEALING. Let us consider for a moment one of the many examples given us in the Scriptures of Jesus’ simple, and yet to our sense marvellous handling of a problem of sickness. Take one of his early healings as recorded in Luke’s gospel. He is besought to help the mother of Simon’s wife, who is seemingly gravely ill. Apparently the Master makes no inquiries as to the symptoms, does not ask for the cause of the malady, nor does he desire to take her temperature or feel her pulse. Let us see what happened, as recorded by Luke. “And he stood over her, and rebuked the fever, and it left her; and immediately she arose and ministered unto them.” There was no period of convalescence, no gradual abating of the fever, nor slow recovery of strength, and the great Healer did not caution her about her diet and warn her not to eat too much. “Immediately she arose and ministered unto them”! In the records of its four thousand years medicine cannot find such an astounding cure of fever wrought through any of its material methods. And yet Christ Jesus did not one material thing. He rebuked the fever—the fever, please notice, and not the woman. Now a word is only the audible expression of a thought ; hence that which brought about this remarkable healing was wholly mental—in other words, it was something which the Master* thought or understood. HOW DID JESUS HEAL THE SICK? This might y understanding we see rebuking unclean spirits, healing epilepsy and all manner of disease; we see it stilling storms; enable Jesus to walk on the water, to feed the multitude, and even to raise the dead. Perhaps the saddest and most grievous error which scholastic theology makes is the relegating of these demonstrations of Jesus’ control over evil and materiality to the realm of the miraculous. Theology excuses its failure to do these works on the ground that Jesus was God, and his acts therefore superhuman; notwithstanding the fact that the Master plainly said that of himself he could do nothing, that it was the Father dwelling in him that did the works, and that those who truly believed in him (understood him) would be able to do the things that he did and even greater things. Therefore the all-important question before Christian people to-day is: Gan we as professed followers of the Master do the works which he did? Can we think his thoughts to-day, and begin to solve our problems by his method? What was it that Jesus thought or understood when he rebuked fevers, stilled storms, overcame lack, and subdued materiality?

MRS. EDDY'S EXPERIENCES. These questions began to form themselves in the thought of Mary Baker Eddy at an early age. She was a deeply religious child, and has written that she would listen with joy to the assurance of her spiritually-minded mother that God was able to raise her up from sickness (Science and Health, p. 359). And she not only hafl proofs of this with herself, but on one occasion when a mere slip of a girl she subdued an insane man. Il seems that an escaped lunatic rushed into the schoolyard where the little Mary Baker was playing. The man was violent, brandishing above his head a club. The children tied in terror —all but Mary Baker. She walked quietly up to him and took his hand. Instantly his manner changed. The arm with the club dropped to his side, and he walked with her quietly to the gate. In later years, but before the light of Christian Science had streamed in its fulness upon her thought, a woman brought her child to Mrs. Eddy, laid it on her knees, and begged her to ask God to cure its blindness. “Mrs. Eddy has stated that she lifted her thought to God and returned the child to its .mother, assuring her that God is able to keep His children. The mother looked at the child’s eyes and they were healed.” (The Life of Mary Baker Eddy by Sibyl Wilbur, p. 70.)

DISCOVERY OF THE SCIENCE. It can be seen plainly that the idea of Christian healing had been budding throughout Mrs. Eddy’s earthly experience, and therefore it was perfectly natural years after, when she found herself near the gates of death, again to turn her thoughts towards spiritual aid. She called for the Bible and opened to the ninth chapter of Matthew. As she read the story of the healing of the man sick of the palsy, the great truth for which she had been searching all her life began to dawn upon her thought. She began to touch the hem of the garment of the healing Christ, and to glimpse the answer to the age-old question, “’What is truth?” In that glorious moment, and in the months and years of consecrated searching and praying that followed, there was unfolded to Mrs. Eddy Jesus’ method of healing, what Jesus must have thought and understood and practiced. In proof of this she not only found herself well, but with this understanding she was able to heal others. 1 In fact, many of Mrs. Eddy’s demonstra- ! tions of healing are as remarkable as those which are recorded in the Acts of the

Apostles. Of such healings she speaks in her writings very briefly and modestly, but we find that cancer, consumption, hip disease, insanity, the morphine and opium habits, and many other forms of sin and sickness all went down speedily before her realisation of the might and glory of the Word of God. Then she set about sharing with the world her discovery and in the textbook, “Science and Health with Key to the scriptures,” and in what are called her shorter writings, we find revealed the Science by which Jesus, the apostles, and the prophets unquestionably did their mighty works.