Article November 21, 1908 Issue

With the unlimited opportunities to know exactly what ...

Charles K. Skinner—Grand Rapids, Mich.

Daily News

With the unlimited opportunities to know exactly what Christian Science teaches, statements which are at utter variance to the facts can but place the speaker in an embarrassing position before an intelligent public. . . . While ever willing and cheerful helpers in such ways as seem wise and safe for the protection of society, the Christian Scientists go farther and aim at the root or cause of sin and disease. Everything is mental before it is manifested materially, and it is not necessary for one to be a Christian Scientist to admit this. The Christian Scientist is striving to educate the individual mind to thoughts of health, purity, and honesty, good in every way, and to a corresponding trust in a loving God to protect and care for His who look to Him. Is it less Christian that the Scientist's department of sympathetic endeavor lies of the prevention of sickness and sorrow, both for this and for future generations, and that he chooses to appeal to God for relief for these dire effects of sin rather than to a drug? Does it render one unsympathetic to assure the sick that God heals diseases, and the sorrowing, that God is an ever-present help, and to give all his time and energy, forgetful of personal pleasure, in helping the needy to gain that understanding? One of the strongest requirements of Mrs. Eddy's teachings is that of pity and tender care for the sick and suffering, and the testimonies of numerous physicians who have been brought in contact with the patients of Christian Scientists corroborate this statement.

Mrs. Eddy's gifts to various causes have been very large. It can be shown that when the call came to help sufferers from the San Francisco disaster, Galveston flood, etc., the gifts from the Christian Science church, with a much smaller membership, exceeded that of any other church in your city. In the distribution of supplies to sufferers from the local flood of that city one who had to do with such work said, "The best clothing and food came from the Christian Scientists." The record of Kidder, Peabody & Co. of Boston, treasures of the Macedonian fund in 1903, shows that the Christian Scientists contributed one seventh of the total amount. In the San Francisco disaster The Mother Church in Boston contributed to the general fund about $2,600, this in addition to help given the Christian Scientists of that city. Mrs. Eddy also sent $1,000 on this occasion. To the Russian relief fund, 1907, the Christian Scientists of Boston sent $1,090, being one fourth of the total amount sent by the city. In the city of Detroit the chairman of the Jewish relief fund said the Christian Scientists were the first to go into their treasury and give liberally to aid their cause, and in the recent case of the Alpena sufferers from fire, their offering was larger than that of any other church.

The Christian Scientists' understanding of the unreality of sickness, etc., is well defined in the writings of Mrs. Eddy, and the various publications from the publishing house in Boston, and these can be found in every Reading Room in the land free of expense to the inquirer. . . . Christian Scientists would not deny that when a man has neuralgia he is in misery; the Scientist does not, however, admit that God is the author of the misery, and if He is not, such a condition has no real entity, no right to exist, and can be overcome by the understanding of God as the only power. According to Scripture, "God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good." Either sin and sickness are good, or God did not make them, hence they are unreal to Him and to the spiritual man.

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