Article March 9, 1907 Issue

Christian Scientists understand that sin and disease...

Charles G. Manness

Kingston (Ontario) News

Christian Scientists understand that sin and disease exist only in the false material sense of things; they seem real, but they are not facts, because God never made them; if they were real they could never be destroyed, for a real thing is an eternal thing and is incapable of destruction. If sin, sickness, and disease are realities it would be foolish to attempt their destruction either through religion, medicine, or any other method. Christian Scientists do not say that pain is imaginary, for "it is neither imaginary nor unreal, that is, to the frightened, false sense of the patient;" but it is a solid conviction to him. [See Science and Health, p. 460.] If this were not so, he would not suffer, and he will lose his suffering only as he learns the unreality of all that is unlike God.

Surely our critic can readily see that in the use of the word "opposite," as applied to evil in contradistinction to good, Mrs. Eddy does not use the term as he uses it in his statement, "East which is real has west for its opposite, therefore west is unreal." In this sense it is not intended to declare that east is antagonistic to west or that the presence of the east renders the west unreal.

Our critic objects to Mrs. Eddy's interpretation of the Scriptures. If he should investigate he would find that whenever her interpretation has been accepted and made practical, good has always followed, and her followers (numbering hundreds of thousands of the most cultured, refined, and intellectual men and women the world can produce) are proving that this interpretation is true, for the signs are following them that believe,—the sick are healed, the sorrowing are comforted, and the sinful are reformed. Christian Science brings forth the normal condition of things; it does not annihilate man, but brings forth his perfection, and has delivered hundreds from the intense fear that eating would cause them suffering, hence delivering them from a state of semi-starvation. Above all, Christian Science enables its followers to obey the Golden Rule; namely, to love their neighbors as themselves, and to do unto others as they would that others should do unto them.

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