Article September 1, 1906 Issue

KEEP THE IDEAL IN VIEW

Alfred Farlow

The Outlook

We have carefully gone over your editorial termed "Truth and Error in Christian Science," in the issue of June 23, and it seems to us that what you have named as its "errors," are not real objections, in view of the fact that the classification is based upon misapprehensions of the subject rather than upon the actual teaching of Christian Science.

For example, you assert that "the body is real," that it is not "imagination." Since you have not expressly stated it, we are left to assume that you do not understand what Christian Science gives in places of what it repudiates. This Science does not teach that man is an illusion, but that he is spiritual and not material. It teaches that everything in creation, from the least to the greatest, is real, though it differs from material-theory affirmations concerning the nature of creation. The word real, in Christian Science, applies only to that which is eternal and incapable of change and decay.

Sin, in a generic sense, includes all evil thoughts, words, and deeds, and these are prompted and perpetuated by a false sense of God and the universe, including man. The struggling mortal oftentimes feels an unnatural restraint. He seems to be conscious that he really owns a larger individuality than that which he experiences, hence we sometimes hear it said, "I am not myself to-day." One should understand that man's real self is the likeness of God, and should awaken to this true selfhood by deporting himself in accordance with this spiritual understanding; therefore he should refrain from everything that is not Godlike. Such practice will not "produce sentimentalism and effeminacy," but a "clear intelligence" and a vigorous manhood. The Christian Scientist does indeed think that God is Love, and his conduct must be in keeping with his correct thinking, in order that he may possess the spirit, or realization, as well as the letter of the Science.

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