Article October 26, 1907 Issue

No one who has carefully studied Science and Health,...

A. W. Mainland

North-West Baptist

No one who has carefully studied Science and Health, the Christian Science text-book, can truthfully say that Mrs. Eddy is "great in her power to mislead," as the entire trend of thought in it is to lead any sincere student to a higher ideal of Christian living. She has not sought adulation, but has lived for years a life of seclusion, that she might devote herself more constantly to the work of elaborating and perfecting her statement of Christian Science for the benefit of mankind. Those who have been freed from the pangs of sickness and the enslavement of sin through her work naturally feel grateful to her for the great good she has brought to them, but this is not worship. It is true that Mrs. Eddy does not believe in sin; that is, as something to be loved and indulged, but she teaches that it is a false illusive sense to be overcome through Christ, Truth.

In common with thousands of orthodox Christians, both in the pulpit and pew, Mrs. Eddy does not believe in a personal devil with horns and cloven hoofs, nor in eternal punishment. She, however, teaches that sin is fully punished, and the punishment lasts as long as the sin is indulged and till all sense of sin is destroyed and man is purified through Christ. Christian Science, it is true, does not teach the "depravity of man," but that "man" was made in the image and likeness of God, who is "too pure to behold iniquity," and that we must "put off the old man" and "put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." Mrs. Eddy has no occasion to be ashamed of the "fruits of her work," as is abundantly proven by the thousands who have been healed and lifted up to purer and nobler living. As she follows the Scriptural injunction, "Let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth," when she dispenses charity, the public will probably never know how large her benefactions are. Many years ago the courts decided the validity of Mrs. Eddy's claim as author of Science and Health. This should satisfy any fair-minded man on this question.

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