Hypercriticism

Editor

A writer in The Baptist Watchman says, "There is a certain class of minds which would repudiate the New Testament revelation if it should turn out that the mustardseed is not actually the least of all seeds."

There is a whole world of truth—human truth—in this statement. It well illustrates the hypercritical habit of not a few minds, especially those minds that have a large confidence in their own culture and intellectuality.

We have heard of persons, and know of others, upon whom able and helpful sermons have been utterly lost because the preacher mispronounced a single word. We know of other persons who have gone home from church disgusted and disgruntled because the minister did not pronounce some of his words after the latest fashion prescribed by some authorities, although there was respectable and even standard authority for the offensive pronunciation. Yet the hypercritic lost all that was good in the sermon because of his own hypercriticism.

This pedantic class of minds would sacrifice substance for form. It would rule out of its circle all who do not come up to its prescribed standard. It would ostracize the worthiest and most Christian spirit if that spirit fell short of the critic's literary attainments, was unfamiliar with its favorite authors, or failed of its conventional pronunciation.

Nay, more, this hypercritical spirit, carried its full length, would, if it could, rule out of the Kingdom of Heaven all who fell short of its standard, however pure and worthy their lives in the moral sense. This spirit would, if it could, have an intellectual heaven, a literary heaven, a heaven of culture peculiarly its own and after its own conventionalities; and it would have this heaven universal and eternal.

This is precisely the spirit indicated by the writer in the Watchman. It would reject revelation because of a grammatical error, a literary slip, or a slight inaccuracy of statement. It would debar itself from the good because of its own peccadillo.

We know of persons—not Christian Scientists—who have gone away from a Christian Science testimony meeting in disgust because one of the testifiers did not give his testimony in strictly grammatical language; yet the person testifying told of wonderful healing, of the great spiritual help received, and gave, on the whole, one of the most touching and convincing experiences of the entire meeting. This was lost to the hypercritical hearer, even rejected by him, because of his own folly.

This spirit should become aware that it is but advertising its own littleness, its own lack of true culture.

We are led, in this connection, to wonder if all who are now disciples of Christian Science have overcome this mortal quality. From all we see and hear, we are forced to answer in the negative.

The spirit of hypercriticism and of supercilious pedantry is by no means as inconspicuous in our ranks as it should be. Doubtless it is being overcome in proportion as the awakening comes. May these words do their part in hastening the awakening, and aid in leading on to a more just criticism, a truer intellectuality, a broader charity, and a larger culture.

We wish, in conclusion, to say, that while we are always glad to hear heart and soul experiences clothed in good forms of expression, it is nevertheless true that some of the testimonies which have sunk most deeply into our consciousness came from those whom the hypercritics would rule out of their heaven for lack of conventional education. Notwithstanding the partial lack of approved form in this class of testimonies, the spirit of love was manifested in such rich abundance that the dear hearts who reflected it were worthy to associate with the best of earth.

Therefore, dear friends, let no one refrain from speaking the truth, and of Truth, because of any supposed educational lack. Let the heart speak, and the head will not suffer.

And, too, let Christian Scientists guard more and more carefully their pre-Scientific tendency to gauge things from the coldly intellectual, rather than the warmly spiritual, standpoint.

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Christian Science Services in the White Mountains

August 1, 1901

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