Persistently Walking Straight Down The Line

I have recently been reading, with pleasure, Sentinels from the mid-50's. The sedate C.S. publications of those years up until the last decade or two of the century contain thousands of still-uplifting and inspiring articles and testimonies. They were, in a memorable line from the movie "Double Indemnity", "straight down the line". It has also been gratifying to read of physicians who had the honesty and humility to give full credit to Christian Science for accomplishing what they could not or did not. It sometimes seems that Christian Scientists today are cowed by the power and glory which modern medical practice has arrogated unto itself and deferentially fold their tents and break camp before the self-righteous bullying of the medical community.

Those who bow down to the god of medical practice and materia medica, as did Caspar and Max before Samiel in Weber's opera "Der Freischutz", are, often unwittingly, making a Faustian bargain with the Dark Side. The first six of false belief's magic bullets may indeed seem to make the suffering party well. The seventh, though, belongs to mortal mind and permits it to collect on the agreement, but its price is terribly high. A timid resignation to the wide and easy medical byway will eventually be subject to all the fine print in such compromises. In answer to Christ Jesus' question "Will ye also go away?" one should rather, like Simon Peter, answer "Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life."

Note: I didn't recall that Gregor Samsa became a cockroach, but didn't research the matter thoroughly. I also concur in the observation that Henry Drummond's "The Greatest Thing in the World" is tres cher. It should be in any Scientist's library, particularly since Mrs. Eddy gave it her warmest recommendation.