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CAROLINE D. NOYES, CSD
All who write on the subject claim to be absolutely correct, and yet no two agree. The claims of one lead us a certain distance in one direction, and those of others in various directions. It is very difficult to know what to do with so many finger posts, and no two pointing in the same direction. No one will find it possible to make the desired progress under such conditions. This situation grows out of the fact that one, thinking to make it better for himself and others, formulates a theory of his own, and sets it forth in the hope to help bring other travellers and seekers to Truth. But they in their turn do likewise, and so the ways multiply, and lead to confusion instead. Some have a pet hobby that must be worked into everything they touch, and these try to make Christian Science the instrument for bringing it forward. But Christian Science cannot be turned to such uses, for it is an exact Science, and there is, or can be, but one right way to demonstrate it. If Christian Science is given to us in Science and Health correctly, all other so-called methods are wrong, for none of them agree with the Science as there set forth. The authors of these publications have no right to pervert its teachings, and call the result "Christian Science," for those who differ from it even in the slightest particular, differ from it wholly, for unless its rules are absolutely followed, they are not followed at all. Those who do this can in no correct sense call themselves Christian Scientists. If the name is taken under such circumstances, it can only be for advertising purposes, and is wrongly appropriated. If Science and Health and our Teacher's words are not altogether right, they are not at all right, for they are consistent throughout. It is the one seamless robe; there is no right to take a part and not take the whole, for it is fitted and adjusted together, to be so taken or not at all. Who would not always prefer the pleasant, easy way of the senses if the desired result could be thus reached? But the rough places must be traversed, and the rugged mountains scaled, for that is where our path will sometimes lead us as well as through the pleasant valleys. Our Teacher shows us how to make our way safely, whether it be through the desert places, up the dangerous mountain sides, or beside the water courses. We must work against the current of error in the cataracts and rapids of mortal mind; must stem its strongest tides. If we do not look in the struggle for an easy place to fall, — and there is none such, — we shall not be so likely to fall. A word of my own experience with mixed literature will not be amiss. People come to me for treatment who have become interested in the Science, and been greatly benefited in health from the reading and study of Science and Health. Books, pamphlets, and magazines, purporting to treat of Christian Science, are loaned them by friends, or sent them by mail, which in their great interest they have eagerly perused. From that time date their troubles; their physical beliefs return, and they can find no relief, even in the pages of Science and Health, which before illuminated their thought with its perfect harmony. That harmony has been broken in upon by the discordant thought of this so-called Christian Science. This should prove to all that such writings are not in accord with the Science, for had they been, no discord would have resulted from such reading, and been manifested by patients in sufferings from old beliefs, and in students through inability to heal. The clear perception of Truth has been lost through such reading, and it is thus proven to them, though they do not always know where to look for the occasion of their darkness. To some it seems an insufficient and trivial reason, but consider for a moment; if reading Science and Health and entering into its crystalline clearness of thought has lifted the cloud of beliefs of various kinds from your mind, and illuminated it, why should not reading error, or a mixture of Truth and error, have an opposite effect, and cloud your spiritual vision? I have found, in such cases, that no line of thought has brought harmony and consequent physical relief until I took up such reading and handled it the same as a belief of disease, and its impression upon the mind was thus eradicated. I have found this true in a great many instances, and think that if all other practical demonstrators were to give in their testimony on this point, you would have a long list of names for the Journal. Those who have read Science and Health with brightened spiritual vision, and renewed physical health, would do well to adhere to the reading of what is in strict accord therewith. There are so many imitations of the Science at the present time, so many who declare in one breath that they are teaching and practising the exact Science, and in the next breath say they are not, that they have deviated in some slight points that "cannot make any real difference," but claiming all the time to be true students of Science and Health and of our Teacher, that it is really a relief to find some who are honest enough to openly declare that their method differs from that set forth in Science and Health. When they earnestly avow their true position, they are easily dealt with, for the test of "By their fruits ye shall know them" soon disposes of them. It is the numberless false claims to teach and practice Science as taught in Science and Health that confuse the public mind, and lead it to believe that it is getting the pure Science in this literature of a spurious Science, and in the teaching that accompanies it, that has done the greatest harm. The wise men followed the light, retraced not their footsteps in the darkness, and so they came to the Christ, but they went on till they came to the object of their search — the Spiritual. Let the honest, earnest seeker for Truth, who has caught the light from Science and Health, follow faithfully the teachings of that book; it will lead him, too, to the Christ.
The Christian Science Journal, June, 1889 |
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