THE Christian Science movement has reached its present stately proportions under the shadow of the world's disapproval. It has been the butt of thoughtless ridicule; the object of misdirected humor and of unjust censure It has been misrepresented and misjudged, criticised and condemned. And now, after a third of a century of its establishment, after all these abundant opportunities for its observation, the critics and opponents of Christian Science might well sit down to consider soberly what it is that has aroused their ire or their antagonism. What is the bad thing about Christian Science, and in what way has it made its disciples worse? What is the evil influence that Christians and others should beware of in it?

Christian Science has been called Utopian, idealistic, impracticable, because the blessings it holds out to men have been considered as too good to be realized in this wicked world. It has been condemned as unchristian, because it repudiates the entity and power of that evil sense, or sense of evil, which many religionists speak of in the same breath with which they speak of God. Its followers have been called fanatics because they have persisted in the actual practice of its teachings, even to the extent of relying upon God in their troubles rather than upon erring, mortal man. And so its many critics of many minds have spent their ammunition upon it, while the followers of this truly Christian Science have gone meekly on their way, while it is "gathering beneath its wings the sick and sinning" (Science and Health, p. 55).

After all that has been said against it, why should not Christian Science be true? Why should men have to go on in such continuous misery and not begin to see a little of heaven even upon earth? or why should it be more impracticable to realize good ideals than bad ones? Why should it not be better, even for an orthodox Christian, to exalt good alone as the intelligence and power of the world, rather than little good and much evil? What is there unchristian in giving the whole world and the whole of man to God and God's control? and why should it not be as effectual to immerse oneself in prayer and good thoughts as to dose oneself with drugs? Or why should it be thought strange by a God-fearing people that He should be believed as kind and helpful when man goes to Him in trouble, as man to man? After all that can be said or thought of to the contrary, why not?

If Christian Science had really been what many, in their ignorance, have supposed it to be, it would have died of itself long ago, died of its own falsity and folly and uselessness, without the help of outsiders. But since this movement has not gone the way its opponents have repeatedly mapped out for it, but has rather increased in prosperity and magnitude year by year, bringing hope and joy, strength, health, and freedom to so many of the sick and suffering of earth, may there not be in Christian Science after all, that which would make the whole world better and happier? If society were in a desirable state there would be no need of reformatory work, and Christian Science would be without field or following; but the strongest opponents of this Science admit the deplorable moral and physical conditions prevalent throughout the world. Let us suppose the present influence of Christian Science extended until it embraced every community and every individual, that all were genuine Christian Scientists, and what would be the effect upon society, upon business affairs, upon the health and morals of the race? This is more than the suggestion of idle fancy, for in view of present-day facts it is a sober probability; but if it were now the case, would the world be the better or the worse?

Picture for a moment all men a unit in their religious belief, and that belief the religion of our Master; and picture every man as earnestly striving to attain the same Christ standard of manhood which he attained, striving to purify his consciousness of all hatred and selfishness and envy, of all jealousy and greed, of every evil thought and desire, and to love his neighbor as himself, ever seeking to have that Mind that was in Christ Jesus, "and to be meek, merciful, just, and pure" (Science and Health, p. 497). Just fancy all men daily trying to do this, and what would be the result? What would become of individual or national strife, of wars and revolutions, of industrial strikes and boycotts, of trusts and monopolies, pauperism, the social evil, and all the horrible crimes which make up such a large part of our daily news? What mental or moral atmosphere would remain in which these conditions could exist or thrive? The influence of Christian Science upon the individual is always towards Christ-likeness and the love of mankind. Let the individual case be magnified so as to include the entire human race, and would the result be good, or bad?

If all men accepted the teaching of Christian Science of the supremacy and allness of God, good, and the consequent unreality of any intelligent, positive evil; if no one acknowledged a devil apart from the belief of selfhood in the flesh, nor obeyed the suggestions of this wicked sense of man, but instead sought ever to honor God, infinite Spirit, as the only creator and power, and His image and likeness as the only genuine and real man; if all thought and lived thus, where would be the blasphemy, or the heresy, or the wrong? That these conditions must some time be is the hope and belief of every Christian; then why should Christian Scientists be condemned for beginning its realization now? What law of God lays upon man the need or the duty of believing in evil? Would the effect of the whole world believing in the infinite goodness and power of God be good, or bad?

Suppose that all the world believed as Christian Scientists do, that there were no laws of health but the law of righteousness and purity; no medicine but the truth of man's perfection as the child of God; no surgery but the excision of error, the cutting out of bad habits and conditions; no hospitals needed but the church; no gossip about pain and disease, but that all were realizing their health in and of God, what then? Would this be fanaticism, or the highest purpose of religion realized? Just fancy a healthy world, with no more fear of getting sick, whose only contagion is love and good works, and whose only quarantine is the guardianship against selfishness and wrong doing!

If critics think this picture exaggerated, or far-fetched, let them examine the influence of Christian Science in individual cases and, in families, and then multiply the result by the world's population. Or better still, let them test its influence upon themselves in the same way that others have done, and then tell us if the result is good or bad. Human nature is much the same wherever found, in whatever age or race. It has the same tendencies to error, the same suffering and sorrow, the same fears and sins. It is no exaggeration or stretch of fancy to include all mankind in the deliverance from these conditions which Christian Science has already brought to many, and which it holds out to all.

If Christian Science is doing good among men, if it is healing helpless invalids and reforming hopeless sinners, if it is bringing joy and comfort to sorrowing hearts, and lighting up the dark places in human thought, helping men to live honestly and to deal justly and kindly with their fellows, and it is doing all this, then what is the difference if it does not follow in the old grooves of religious or medical rule and practice, or if it departs from the dogmatism of material science and philosophy? If Christian Science is turning the thoughts of men away from evil, away from selfishness and meanness and impurity, away from all that debases manhood; and if the practice of this truth is succeeding, even in a measure, in its Christly effort, why should the stone of condemnation be thrown at it simply because it is taking a different road from the old beaten paths of the past, which have not led mankind out of the labyrinth of error?

Let the opponents of Christian Science look backward over the centuries, as far as history will take them, and note the endless efforts of human material knowledge to cope with and overcome the ills and evils of the flesh, to discover the secret of health and harmony and satisfaction. And let them note the sad, despairing repetitions of failure and defeat through all the ages up to this, and then tell us what unexplored ground remains in materialism on which they hope to found a successful, redemptive, regenerative system for the race. Leaving personal and educated prejudices aside, and surveying dispassionately the world's great need, will they tell us what there is in the whole range of mortals' knowledge, of past or present, that can supersede the divine effectiveness and the sweet and holy influence of Christ's Christianity, Christian Science?

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