462 THE KING’S BUSINESS for sacrifice of self, and the surrender of self to God. One great reason why Christian Science has so many votaries is because it enables a man (or woman), to think he is very religious, in fact, religious above the ordinary run of men and women, and yet without making any sacrifice whatever, but leading the most intensely self-centered and utterly selfish life. Christian Science is the most selfish and heartless and cruel system that man ever devised. It concentrates one’s thought entirely upon self. It knows no sympathy. All it dreads is suf fering. It has no horror for sin, and so people flock to it. Of course, many flock to it because of its promise of healing for the body, and people are willing to do anything, pay any price, if they can be delivered from physical infirmity. They are willing to sacrifice their souls for a possible healing for their bodies. But while this craving for physical healing makes men and women willing to follow any system, no matter how monstrous or absurd, that promises it, prob ably the fact that “Christian Science” is a religion without sacrifice is what gives it its peculiar hold upon men and women today. It certainly is not “the crudities of human interpretation” that the Christian Scientists have revolted from, for of all the crude and ludicrous interpretations that have ever been put upon the Bible, Mrs. Mary Baker Grover Eddy’s interpretations are the crudest and most utterly absurd. The writer goes on to say: “The more men are impressed with the deeper truths of religion the less credulity have they for its superficial expressions.” This sounds well, but it is not true. The man who has the deepest realiza tion of the deeper truths of religion puts a high estimation upon those symbols that God Himself has appointed for the expression of these deeper truths. The writer goes on still further to say : “Man-made forms are less and less impressive.” That is true in what it says, but it is false in what it implies. Baptism, the. Lord’s supper, the gathering together of God’s people, kneeling in prayer, are not “man-made forms,” they are of Divine appointment. The writer goes on to say still further: v “The vital things that have to do with right thinking and right living were never more generally believed in.” This is absolutely untrue. Thè vital things are the very things men and women are letting go of. The atonement of Jesus Christ by His vicarious- death upon the Cross of Calvary, has proven in experience and in history one of the most vital things in the religion of Jesus Christ. A religion without atoning blood has always proved to be a dead and decaying thing, and yet far and wide people are giving up God’s doctrine Of ;the atonement plainly taught in the Bible, that “without shedding of blood there is no remission,” for the “Chris tian Science” and Unitarian doctrine of atonement that entirely leaves out the blood. The atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ has everything to do with right living and right thinking. The men who really have an intelligent faith in the atoning blood of Jesus Christ are the ones who really live right, according to the pattern which our Lord Jesus Himself set. The most fundamental things in Christian faith are the very things which are being more and more widely rejected today. The writer, further on in the editorial, indulges in the usual find sounding twaddle about “the fatherhood of God and brotherhood of man- that is of universal interest at a time like this.” The writer says still further : “If the founder of the Christian religion be accepted as authority, love o f God and love of man includes all.”
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