Article May 2, 1903 Issue

Christianity Defined

Edward Everett Norwood

Charleston (S. C.) News

Mr. Editor.

The definition of the word Christian as an adjective, is "manifesting the spirit of Christ and his teachings, as 'Christian kindness, loving, compassionate,' etc.," and one definition of science is, "A systematically arranged collection of logical conclusions, based on a self-evident or demonstrated premise." The motto of Christian Scientists, upon their seal (a cross and crown), is the command of the Master, "Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons," and they are doing this (or the divine Mind is doing it through them) by studying and living and demonstrating the teachings of Christ.

Its followers, who, though but beginners, comparatively speaking, in this Science, are proving it to be an exact system, and on a demonstrable basis, every time they heal a case of sickness, do this healing not through any suggestion of one mortal mind to another, nor through any hypnotic or mesmeric effects, but by realizing God, the one divine Mind, as the giver and ruler of all, and that He shares not His kingdom with any opposite power. If He is supreme and omnipotent and good, there is no room for anything else, or any evil power, so called, as an entity or reality. If disease, sin, discord, and death do not exist in the divine Mind, they must have their sense of existence only in the carnal mind, which, as St. Paul tells us, "is enmity against God." Then is it not Christian to exhort men to rise above the evidence of his false sense of mind, to put off the old man with his deeds, his discordant beliefs, and put on (reflect, express) the new man, the one divine Mind?

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