Article February 1, 1913 Issue

A sermon delivered in your city entitled "The Breaking...

Ezra W. Palmer

Boulder (Col.) Camera

A sermon delivered in your city entitled "The Breaking Point," and recently circulated in pamphlet form, assumes the position that bodily weakness may be fought off for a season, but that a time arrives when "an unmanageable physical breakdown occurs which Christian Science is very foolish to deny," and adds that "the day will come when the physician or surgeon will have to be called in." The above quotations are a curious illustration of the extent to which a materialistic conception of the universe will lead one astray from the plain teachings of Jesus Christ. Of course if one accepts the dictum of the material senses much inductive evidence can be gathered which would indicate that death is inevitable. But this evidence is purely tentative and empirical. To illustrate, a person ignorant of music might contend that discord in music is inevitable and unmanageable, his sole reason for so declaring being because he could not bring out concord, not knowing its laws. A great multitude might believe the same thing, inevitably shutting themselves off from the wonderful beauties of musical harmony. But let the master musician appear and all the reiterated declarations and beliefs of the multitude are set at naught.

Jesus Christ was the master musician. He knew the infinite concord of eternal God, who governs the universe harmoniously. What was his attitude toward so-called "unmanageable physical breakdown"? Did he weakly throw up his hands before such a condition? By no means. He knew the infinite love of omnipotent God for all His children, and knowing that human ills never came from God and that no power could be "unmanageable" in His sight, he healed the multitudes of all manner of diseases. The skeptics of his day, to hide their lack of faith in God, might have declared that the man with a withered hand had "an unmanageable physical breakdown," but Jesus knew better. He said to the man, "Stretch forth thy hand," and the hitherto unmanageable weakness disappeared.

What did Jesus teach about the so-called inevitableness of death? He never taught that death is inevitable, neither did his disciples. On the contrary, he declared that man could escape from death. He raised Lazarus from the dream of death, overcame it himself, and declared without reservation, "If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death." Where in this is there room for a so-called inevitable breakdown or the necessity for the doctor's drugs or the surgeon's scalpel? St. Paul points out in the eighth chapter of Romans that ignorance of God is the cause of death, and that a right understanding of Him brings harmony. He says: "For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace."

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