CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR, SOCIETIES OF. 



CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 



121 



iirt thou, believing me, whom thou hast not seen, 

 for it is written of me, ' They that have seen me 

 shall not believe; they that have not seen me 

 shall believe.' Be saved; but concerning the mat- 

 ter thou hast written about, with this I acquaint 

 thee, that all things for which I was sent hither 

 must be fulfilled. Then I shall be taken up and 

 returned to Him who sent me ; but after my ascen- 

 sion I will send one of my disciples that shall cure 

 thee of the distemper and give life to all them that 

 are with thee." 



In reference to this matter, Eusebius (A. D. 320) 

 wrote that Abgarus, being a great sufferer fi-om 

 disease, and having heard of the miracles of Jesus, 

 sent a letter to him, and that Jesus, in answer, 

 sent him a picture of himself, and promised that 

 after his death he would send one of his disciples. 

 The discovery, while it does not afford any con- 

 firmation to the story, furnishes evidence that it 

 was currently received in Ephesus at the time the 

 inscription was made, probably in the fifth cen- 

 tury A. D. 



CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR, SOCIETIES 

 OF. The Intel-national Convention of the Soci- 

 eties of Christian Endeavor was held in London, 

 beginning with meetings of welcome, July 14, in 

 Exeter Hall, Albert Hall, and the Alexandra Pal- 

 ace. The general secretary reported the whole 

 present number of societies as being 59,712, with 

 3,500,000 members. The enrollment in the United 

 States represented 43,262 societies; in the United 

 Kingdom, about 7,000; in Australasia, more than 

 4,000; in Germany, 168; in Africa, 130; in France, 

 69; in Jamaica, 120; in China, 148; in India, 459; 

 in Mexico, 110; in Madagascar, 93; in Japan, 73; 

 in Turkey, 60; in Spain, 36; while societies existed 

 in nearly every other nation. Topics were dis- 

 cussed during the five days of the meetings rela- 

 tive to The Dawning Age and its Problems, 

 World-wide Endeavor, Temperance, Citizenship, 

 The Missionary Outlook, and Pentecostal Power. 

 A " roll call of nations " was responded to by 

 representatives of twenty nationalities speaking 

 of the condition and prospects of Christian En- 

 deavor work in their several countries. Oppor- 

 tunities were given for the special representation 

 in " denominational rallies " of the various de- 

 nominations with which Christian Endeavor So- 

 cieties are connected. The Bishop of London ad- 

 dressed the meeting on the Spirit of Christ and 

 the Cultivation of the Christian Temper. The 

 " Junior rally " was participated in by "several 

 thousand children. 



CHRISTIAN SCIENCE, a doctrinal, cura- 

 tive, and spiritual system, discovered in 1866 by 

 Mary Baker Eddy. In that year, shut off from 

 the outside world because of the effects of an 

 accident pronounced incurable by physicians, and 

 giving herself up to a close study of the Scrip- 

 tures, Mrs. Eddy claims to have discovered and 

 demonstrated in her own person the doctrine 

 which she subsequently gave to the world, and 

 which is now proclaimed and practiced by many 

 thousands of her followers. In 1875 the Chris- 

 tian Science text-book, Science and Health, with 

 Key to the Scriptures, prepared by Mrs. Eddy in 

 the intervening years, was published in Boston. 

 According to this book its tenets are as follow: 



1. As adherents of Truth, we take the Scriptures 

 for our guide to eternal Life. 



2. We acknowledge and adore one Supreme In- 

 finite God. We acknowledge one Christ, the Holy 

 Ghost, and man as the Divine image and likeness. 



3. God's forgiveness of sin, in the destruction of 

 sin, and the understanding that sin and suffering 

 are not eternal. 



4. The atonement as the efficacy and evidence of 



divine Love, of man's unity with God, and the 

 great merits of Jesus, the Way-Shower. 



5. Universal Salvation as demonstrated by 

 Jesus, the Galilean prophet, in the power of Truth 

 over all error, sin, sickness, and death; and the 

 resurrection of human faith and understanding to 

 seize the great possibilities and living energies of 

 divine Lite. 



6. We solemnly promise to strive, watch, and 

 pray for the Mind to be in us which was also in 

 Christ Jesus, to love one another, and to be meek, 

 merciful, just, and pure.* 



The Christian Science Trinity or divine Principle 

 is " Life, Truth, Love." 



Mrs. Eddy also declares, in Science and Health, 

 that " no analogy exists between the hypotheses 

 of agnosticism, pantheism, theosophy, spiritualism, 

 and Christian Science," and that " electrocism, 

 hypnotism, and mesmerism are its antipodes." She 

 adds : " I have set forth Christian Science and its 

 application to disease only as I have found them. 

 I have demonstrated the effects of Truth on the 

 health, longevity, and morals of men through 

 mind, and I have found nothing in ancient or mod- 

 ern systems on which to found my own except the 

 teachings of our Great Master, and the lives of 

 apostles and prophets." 



In brief, the discovery and claim put forth by 

 Christian Science is, that all mankind who come 

 into true spiritual oneness with the divine mind 

 may work upon themselves and others the mira- 

 cles wrought by Christ and his apostles, to whom 

 he imparted the knowledge, and who, in turn, im- 

 parted it to the early Christian Church, which 

 practiced it while faith was strong. That the 

 promise and power to heal the sick, cast out evil, 

 and raise the dying was not confined to any special 

 time or period, but is a fact demonstrable through- 

 out all time, Christ being the great " way-shower." 



Mrs. Eddy has explained Christian Science as 

 follows: "There is but one God, one Christ, and 

 one Jesus of Nazareth. God is mind and all in all ; 

 therefore there can be nothing real but infinite 

 mind and its manifestations. The compound indi- 

 vidual idea of divine principle is Christ, the spirit- 

 ual idea of truth, personifying the primal order 

 of being and as perfect as its source. Jesus repre- 

 sented the incarnation of Christ's principle. He 

 stood for truth, healing the sick and sinful, and 

 triumphing over the tomb. By his metaphysical 

 therapeutics it was proved that miracles do not 

 violate, but fulfill, the law. The curative system 

 is based upon the unreality of matter. Nothing- 

 being real but Spirit, disease is an illusion of mor- 

 tal mind, growing out of false conditions of 

 thought. There is but one real mind in the uni- 

 verse, viz., God. Man being the idea of God, all is 

 well with him when he divests himself of the illu- 

 sions of mortal mind and becomes at-one with God. 



" Man's origin is not material, but spiritual. The 

 universe is not the result of physical propulsion, 

 but is an evolution from the Infinite Mind. God 

 is Spirit, Truth. As matter is the opposite of spirit, 

 truth, so must it be the opposite of God. Matter 

 is the subjective state of error, deflecting from 

 everlasting uprightness and eventuating in false 

 personal beliefs, in sickness and death, only to be 

 overcome by conquering truth eradicated not by 

 drugs or hygienic rules that is, laws of matter 

 but by the power of Mind. Jesus referred to origi- 

 nal evil, which he cast out in healing the sick, 

 and called it ' the devil and a liar from the be- 

 ginning.' 



" Jesus's mission was not for a period, but 

 touched universal humanity. Hence his promise, 



* This statement of belief is protected by Mrs. Eddy's 

 copyright, and is used here by special permission. 



