Article March 17, 1923 Issue

Christian Science is based wholly on the Scriptures, and...

Marie C. Hartman, Committee on Publication for Holland,—Apeldoorn (translation)

Nieuwe Apeldoornsche Courant

Christian Science is based wholly on the Scriptures, and especially on the words and works of Christ Jesus. In accordance with the Bible it teaches that God is the one, all-potent, everywhere present cause and creator; and it demands of men the practice of this fact of God's allness in all their thoughts and deeds, thus rendering obedience to the First Commandment, and acknowledging no other gods or powers. If God is the only creator, that which He has created and which therefore emanates from Him is the whole of reality,—all that is true. Reality, therefore, is the expression of God, who is Life, Truth, and Love; and through His omnipotence God supports all creation and maintains it in its eternal perfection. "No man is able to pluck" it "out of my Father's hand," as Jesus said. Christ Jesus possessed this understanding of God's allness in all its fullness. His whole life, his words and deeds, his resurrection and ascension, all proved that he was ever conscious of God's allness and omnipresence. And did he not convincingly show in healing the sick, awakening the sinner, raising the dead, feeding the multitudes, silencing the storm, and in many other instances, that the understanding of God's presence is sufficient to destroy evil and suffering? And did he not thus prove that evil,—all sin, disease, and death,—does not belong to the eternal, unchanging things of God, and therefore does not result from God's law, but is destroyed by it?

Christian Science considers all forms of evil to be the result of wrong thinking, lack of trust in God, divine Principle, and failure to acknowledge Him as the only cause and creator, or the result of the belief in a power and life separate from God. This false belief is due to ignorance,—ignorance of Truth, God. By letting the Mind of Christ govern him, one may free himself from the so-called carnal mind and become more and more conscious of all that God has ordained for His child, His image and likeness,—purity, holiness, health, and perfect harmony. Christian Science does not say, therefore, that sickness must necessarily be ascribed to one's own fault, but it teaches its followers how to experience and demonstrate so much of God's saving and redeeming love that under all circumstances and with scientific certainty they may learn to rely on divine Love.

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