Article March 11, 1922 Issue

In an issue of the Rochdale Times there were published...

Allan S. M'Nab

Rochdale (England) Times

In an issue of the Rochdale Times there were published some excerpts from the monthly letter of a vicar to his parishioners, under the heading, "Beyond the Veil." In the course of his remarks, the vicar makes a very inaccurate statement regarding the teachings of Christian Science. For the benefit of your large circle of readers, perhaps you will be kind enough to publish this brief statement of the actual teachings of Christian Science on a subject of such universal interest.

When the vicar asks, "Have you ever considered that nearly every exaggerated cult like ... Christian Science ... arises from the natural desire of the human heart for God's truth?" he is stating the case perhaps more clearly than he realizes, for it was through an intense and prayerful yearning to understand more of the truth about God that Mary Baker Eddy discovered the divine Principle of healing. Christian Science is no more an "exaggerated cult" in this age than was Christianity as expounded by Christ Jesus to the Jews of his day. Just how the reverend gentleman has gleaned the knowledge that "Christian Science arises from a false teaching that sickness is the result of God's anger" it would be hard to say. Certainly it was not found in the textbook of Christian Science, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," by Mary Baker Eddy, for on page 465 of that textbook we have this definition of God: "God is incorporeal, divine, supreme, infinite Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love." Again, on page 482 we read: "Sickness is part of the error which Truth casts out.... Christian Science is the law of Truth, which heals the sick on the basis of the one Mind or God." Furthermore, in dealing with the Scriptural reference to "God's anger," Mrs. Eddy states on page 293 of Science and Health that "the manifestations of evil, which counterfeit divine justice, are called in the Scriptures, 'The anger of the Lord.' In reality, they show the self-destruction of error or matter and point to matter's opposite, the strength and permanency of Spirit. Christian Science brings to light Truth and its supremacy, universal harmony, the entireness of God, good, and the nothingness of evil." Is the Christian Scientist following an "exaggerated cult" because he prefers to place implicit reliance on Jesus' words: "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free"?

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