Article May 27, 1905 Issue

With Bishop Burgess' extraordinary statement regarding...

Willard S. Mattox

Hartford (Conn.) Post

With Bishop Burgess' extraordinary statement regarding Jesus' methods of healing, Christian Science takes issue. The assertion that Jesus "never performed a miracle when natural means would do as well," is an unthinkable proposition to the Christian Scientist. There is nothing in the Scriptural record of Jesus' work to lead us to believe that he ever resorted to other than purely mental or spiritual means in performing his cures.

To him, his work was not miraculous, or unnatural, but divinely natural; though healing without what Bishop Burgess calls "natural means." might well seem mystical then and now, to the materialist. The Christian Scientist believes that to pray to God, Spirit, for healing, while at the same time holding on to God's opposite, matter, for relief, is to dishonor God, and illustrates the parable of the house divided against itself, which cannot stand.

There are many who think otherwise, and they are entitled to their opinion, but Christian Scientists should not be criticised for trying to be consistent, that is, for trusting God when they say they trust Him, and doing so without the medium of matter. The Apostle James wrote to the early church, "Is any among you afflicted? let him pray." He did not say, "Try natural (material) means first, and if that fails then try God." It is a pity that the absolute trust in God which characterized the apostolic era has been so notoriously absent from latter-day Christianity. Few will doubt that sickness is an "affliction," and it can hardly be questioned that St. James had bodily disease in mind when he bade his hearers pray. Willard S. Mattox.
Hartford (Conn.) Post.

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