Article March 28, 1908 Issue

The oft-repeated attempts to substitute ritual and...

William Royle

Rochdale (England) Times

The oft-repeated attempts to substitute ritual and dogma for the simple gospel teaching have resulted in countless sects, all claiming to be followers of the Master; united in aim, but differing in practice, sometimes with the bitterest intensity of feeling and an utter lack of charity one to the other. Must Christian Scientists be ostracized and refused the right to call themselves Christians because they prefer a different interpretation than the orthodox of the Christ precepts and example, a different reading from the one laid down as a standard by our critics? Is the water less pure at its source than when it merges into the ocean? Our critic quotes from the creed, "God made heaven and earth," and Christian Scientists agree with this, but they seek to interpret the universe spiritually and not materially. "Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgement." According to Christian Science, as defined in Science and Health (p. 547), "The true theory of the universe, including man, is not in material history but in spiritual development."

It is wrong to say, as our critic does, that it is an "assertion of Christian Science that all complaints are imagination." We are inside the human experience and know the suffering and sorrows inherent to the flesh, and we also know that to the human sense they seem real, but we deny their reality from the scientific standpoint, that as they have not been sent by God they are unreal, only that being real which He creates; and it is this understanding which enables Christian Scientists to heal the sick in the Master's name. Will our friend tell us what was the thought of Jesus when he said of the daughter of Jairus, "The maid is not dead, but sleepeth"? Did he see death as a reality sent by God, or as a false belief to be destroyed by Truth?

Christian Science is not an invention, but a discovery of the Christ method of healing sin and sickness, and like all sciences it will stand or fall by its capacity to demonstrate what it declares. . . . Whatever may be said against Christian Scientists, they will not be kept from their purpose of trying to follow the Christ commands, knowing that in the degree they understand his teaching, reflect his love, and loyally fulfil his precepts, they will not only continue to heal the sick and the sinner, but will also break through the prejudice born of a misunderstanding of Christian Science. . . .

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