Page:The Life of Mary Baker G. Eddy.djvu/252

210 was of great advantage from a secular point of view." And in later and more prosperous days Mrs. Eddy has written in satisfied retrospect: "In the early history of Christian Science among my thousands of students few were wealthy. Now, Christian Scientists are not indigent; and their comfortable fortunes are acquired by healing mankind morally, physically, and spiritually." Whatever may be the Christian Science theories regarding the nothingness of other forms of matter, the various forms of currency continue to appear very real to the spiritualised vision of its followers. Mrs. Eddy insists that her healers shall be well paid. The matter of payment has, she thinks, an effect upon the patient who pays. She says: "Christian Science demonstrates that the patient who pays what he is able to pay is more apt to recover than he who withholds a slight equivalent for health." Worldly prosperity, indeed, plays an important part in the Christian Science religion to-day. It is, singularly enough, considered a sign of spirituality in a Christian Scientist. Poverty is believed to be an error, like sin, sickness, and death; and Christian Scientists aim to make what they call their "financial demonstration" early in their experience. A poor Christian Scientist is as much of an anomaly as a sick Christian Scientist.