  The combined efforts of the materialistic portion of the pulpit and press in 1885, to retard by misrepresen- tation the stately goings of Christian Science, are giving [10] it new impetus and energy; calling forth the vox populi and directing more critical observation to its uplifting influence upon the health, morals, and spirituality of mankind. Their movements indicate fear and weakness, a physi- [15] cal and spiritual need that Christian Science should re- move with glorious results. The conclusion cannot now be pushed, that women have no rights that man is bound to respect. This is woman's hour, in all the good tend- encies, charities, and reforms of to-day. It is difficult [20] to say which may be most mischievous to the human heart, the praise or the dispraise of men. I have loved the Church and followed it, thinking that it was following Christ; but, if the pulpit allows the people to go no further in the direction of Christlikeness, and [25] rejects apostolic Christianity, seeking to stereotype infinite Truth, it is a thing to be thankful for that one can walk alone the straight and narrow way; that, in the words of Wendell Phillips, “one with God is a majority.” It is the pulpit and press, clerical robes and the pro- [1] hibiting of free speech, that cradles and covers the sins of the world,—all unmitigated systems of crime; and it requires the enlightenment of these worthies, through civil and religious reform, to blot out all inhuman codes. [5] It was the Southern pulpit and press that influenced the people to wrench from man both human and divine rights, in order to subserve the interests of wealth, religious caste, civil and political power. And the pulpit had to be purged of that sin by human gore,—when the love of [10] Christ would have washed it divinely away in Christian Science! The cry of the colored slave has scarcely been heard and hushed, when from another direction there comes another sharp cry of oppression. Another form of inhumanity [15] lifts its hydra head to forge anew the old fetters; to shackle conscience, stop free speech, slander, vilify; to invite its prey, then turn and refuse the victim a solitary vindication in this most unprecedented warfare. A conflict more terrible than the battle of Gettysburg [20] awaits the crouching wrong that refused to yield its prey the peace of a desert, when a voice was heard crying in the wilderness,—the spiritual famine of 1866, —“Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make His paths straight.” [25] Shall religious intolerance, arrayed against the rights of man, again deluge the earth in blood? The question at issue with mankind is: Shall we have a spiritual Chris- tianity and a spiritual healing, or a materialistic religion and a materia medica? [30] The advancing faith and hope of Christianity, the earnest seeking after practical truth that shall cast out error and heal the sick, wisely demand for man his God- [1] given heritage, both human and divine rights; namely, that his honest convictions and proofs of advancing truth be allowed due consideration, and treated not as pearls trampled upon. [5] Those familiar with my history are more tolerant; those who know me, know that I found health in just what I teach. I have professed Christianity a half-century; and now I calmly challenge the world, upon fair investigation, to furnish a single instance of departure in one of my [10] works from the highest possible ethics. The charges against my views are false, but natural, since those bringing them do not understand my state- ment of the Science I introduce, and are unwilling to be taught it, even gratuitously. If they did understand it, they [15] |
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