Article October 10, 1908 Issue

Our critic asks why Christian Scientists heal only those...

W. E. Brown

San Bernardino (Cal.) Index

Our critic asks why Christian Scientists heal only those who are willing to be healed. In so doing the Christian Scientists are following the example of the Master and his disciples, whose custom it was to heal those who sought healing. The promise is to him who seeks, "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." It is related of Jesus in Matthew's Gospel, that in a certain country "he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief." ... Christian Science is daily proving that its interpretation of Jesus' teachings is correct by healing all sorts of diseases, many of them pronounced incurable by materia medica. In doing this it is healing the slaves of sin and is transforming them into earnest, consecrated followers of the Master. These are the signs Jesus promised should follow "them that believe."

Our critic cites Jesus' action in anointing the eyes of the blind man with clay and spittle and the instruction to wash in the pool of Siloam as evidence of his belief in their therapeutic value. Christian Scientists gather just the opposite evidence, i.e., that these actions of Jesus showed his contempt for material remedies. Among the Jews it was customary to spit upon that for which they had no regard. In the instance under consideration it is related that Jesus "spat on the ground." Christian Scientists interpret this action of Jesus to show that all earthly or material remedies are of no avail. It will also be noted that before the blind man saw. he had to wash off the clay and spittle in the pool of Siloam, clearly showing that material remedies are useless and that true healing can come only from the understanding of God.

Much of the teaching of Jesus was by parables and symbols, and undoubtedly to this class belong the incidents of spittle and clay and the oil and wine our critic mentions. If these incidents are to be interpreted literally, and if the oil, wine, and spittle really had a therapeutic value and were necessary to healing, why did not Jesus and his disciples use them constantly? If they were efficacious and necessary in one instance, they would surely have been so in all. Furthermore, if a mixture of clay and spittle could cure blindness in the time of Jesus, it could do it now, but we do not hear of the blind recovering their sight in this manner. Jesus and his disciples healed the sick and sinful through their understanding of the power of God, and did not need to stoop to any so-called material remedies. The system of materia medica and material remedies prevailing in Jesus' time received a severe arraignment in the story of the woman who "had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse."

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