Page:Valid Objections to So-called Christian Science (1902).pdf/51

 Christian Science and Christianity do not coalesce. If the former be true, then Christian ethics is false. Therefore, the triumph of Christian Science would mean the overthrow of the religion of the Master, and of the splendid morality and altruism which are the growth and offspring of it. Who can measure the catastrophe this would prove to the world? The hope swept away, which has been the stay of twenty centuries and millions of souls, where should we turn to get the courage to bear the burdens that weigh us down? And what strength greater than the power of our weakened personalities might we be able to appropriate?

The charity and love which have softened and made smooth the hard places in life would give way to a sort of deified self-complacency, ignoring the ills of others in dreaming away its own; and the personality of the divine Lord of Life, the Son of God, with all its marvelous subtlety, gentleness and majesty, would be overshadowed by the image of a sick woman whose own infirmities are a physical refutation of the doctrine which she teaches. Pray God that such disaster may never come! Can the world afford to permit it? Shall we Christians believe that it is possible?