Article August 18, 1928 Issue

In reply to a writer's false assertion that Mr. Wiggin...

Charles W. J. Tennant,—Perth, Scotland

Perthshire Advertiser

In reply to a writer's false assertion that Mr. Wiggin revised the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, let me give Mrs. Eddy's own words on the subject. On page 317 of her book, "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany," she writes: "It is a great mistake to say that I employed the Rev. James Henry Wiggin to correct my diction. It was for no such purpose. I engaged Mr. Wiggin so as to avail myself of his criticisms of my statement of Christian Science, which criticisms would enable me to explain more clearly the points that might seem ambiguous to the reader." And she continues: "My diction, as used in explaining Christian Science, has been called original. The liberty that I have taken with capitalization, in order to express the 'new tongue,' has well-nigh constituted a new style of language. In almost every case where Mr. Wiggin added words, I have erased them in my revisions." No human being has ever proved, or will ever prove, that the statement that there is no connection between the spiritual and the material is a lie. Paul puts the fact of their opposite naturals very clearly when he says, "The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other." The work of Christ Jesus was the overcoming of sin, disease, and death, conditions which arise from a belief that there is substance matter. He proved these beliefs to be false. From this it will be seen that the material aspect of life is a false sense of life, and must be denied. The spiritual aspect is the true aspect of life, and must be demonstrated. Mrs. Eddy does not prohibit anyone from reading either the Old or the New Testament, and every Christian Scientist studies them both. For our critic to aver that Mrs. Eddy prohibited anyone from reading the New Testament shows what an absurd misapprehension as to the teachings of Christian Science he is laboring under.

The teachings of Christ Jesus will eventually save the world from all evil, including sin, disease, and death. Jesus healed the sick, raised the dead, reformed the sinner, and did many other mighty works through his knowledge of God and of God's laws. He brought salvation to mankind through what he knew, not through his subsequent sufferings on Calvary. Jesus implied that salvation was true knowledge when he declared, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." Our critic has not discerned the distinction which Christ Jesus himself made between his human selfhood, Jesus, and his spiritual selfhood, Christ, the Son of God. Two statements reveal his consciousness of the Christ as preexisting before the human Jesus appeared on earth. He declared, "Before Abraham was, I am," and he referred to the glory which he had with God "before the world was." Christian Science teaches that there is only one Christ. Sin is not necessary, and anyone can cease sinning at any moment. The definition of "pantheism" in the Oxford Dictionary may be better than Webster's; but fundamentally they mean exactly the same thing, and that is, the identification of God with the material universe. Christian Science, on the other hand, does not identify God with the material universe, and therefore it is not pantheism. The Bible declares that man is the image and likeness of God. Christian Science teaches that this image and likeness must be the reflection of God, or the Son of God. The statement in the writer's last paragraph that Mrs. Eddy brought twenty cases before the Court of Justice to recover fees for tuition is quite untrue. Christian Scientists know well that Christian Science is not "a hoax," as our critic would imagine. The countless thousands that have been lifted out of despair, sin, disease, and suffering, know that they have found the truth which makes free, and are every day more grateful to God and His Way-shower, Christ Jesus, and to their Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, who rediscovered the way which had been lost through scholastic theology and the worship of materiality.