Article June 21, 1900 Issue

The Christian Science Position Regarding Bodily Suffering

with contributions from Alfred Farlow

To the Editor of the Transcript:—

In an article entitled, "Mrs. Whitney on Christian Science" published recently in the Transcript, it is stated that Mrs. Whitney's criticism, "does not seek to abolish bodily suffering, which is good for us, nor does it scorn the matter into which Divinity has breathed life, nor discredit the skill and usefulness of the physician who assuages by natural means the natural woes of the body."

Bodily suffering is nothing more nor less than the expiration of a false sense of harmony, which awakens the sufferer to a knowledge of the insufficiency and unsafety of his peculiar beliefs and practices. No one knows better than Christian Scientists that suffering convinces us of the error of our ways and thus urges us out of the same. "Necessity is the mother of invention" and discovery. When one thing fails us we seek another, and thus we go on from better to better, until we finally reach the best and perfect way. One of the principal causes of suffering is our lack of understanding and practice of the true "Science of Being." When this want is supplied, the cause and necessity of suffering is outgrown. The Christian Scientist kindly acknowledges not only the usefulness but the need of the physician. He fills a necessary place in human experience, and his service cannot be dispensed with until mortals have come to the recognition of the need of a more spiritual method. The Christian Scientist, however, has outgrown the period of material medicine. He chooses for himself the entire dependence upon God as a means of healing the sick, but he asks no more of others than to be allowed to do this peaceably, and to help and teach only those who desire his service.

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