he hard beset may win on any field
of battle. The writer believes that while this severe judgment is
justified by "Science and Health," it is not justified by the practical
outcome of the cult in the lives of many of its disciples. They are in
devotion and kindness the equal of many in the Church and superior to
some. Their loyalty to their Church rebukes a good deal of orthodox
easy-going. All of which proves at least that life is bigger than our
theories about it and in the end subdues those who would make the best
of it, to communities of experience and understanding in which we are
all strangely kin. For, after all, unpleasant things cannot be thought
out; they must be fought out and dug out and lived out. The whole
redemptive force of society in thoroughgoing and far-reaching ways must
be brought to bear upon the very sources of all the evil side of life,
and the bare philosophy of Christian Science is not equal to this task.

_Is Not Big Enough for the Whole of Experience_

It is doubtful if Christian Science has ever made an appreciable change
in the mortality statistics of any city and yet if the Public Health
Department were to permit for forty-eight hours the milk or water supply
of a city to be polluted, statistics would disclose that within ten
days. This is only an illustration but it does illustrate. We must work
if we are to dig up the roots of evil things and get a better growth in
their stead and anything which attempts to substitute for this a denial
of the reality of the evil, a mystical religious attitude and a mere
formula of faith, no matter how oft repeated or how sincerely accepted,
or indeed no matter how efficacious in certain selected regions among
certain selected groups, is on the whole not a contribution to human
well-being.

Very likely Mrs. Eddy's followers in the practical conduct of their
lives are already recognizing this and gradually, and maybe
unconsciously, adapting themselves to it. There are already signs of
certain processes of conformity to the necessities of experience; these
are likely to go farther. If Christian Science follows the history of
such movements in the past, it will, after having made its own distinct
assertion of whatever measure of truth it contains, be gradually swept
back into the main current of religion and practice. It will maintain a
nominal distinctness, but in the general conduct of life it will lose
its more outstanding characteristics and become l