Article April 11, 1908 Issue

The statements, "There is not a single new idea in Christian Science"...

John L. Rendall—Independence, Ia.

Bulletin-Journal

The statements, "There is not a single new idea in Christian Science" and "The truth it contains has ever been practised by the Church," need qualifications. The wise man said, "There is no new thing under the sun." This, as an abstract statement, is true, yet humanity finds many things which to its limited sense appear new. All of truth is necessarily eternal, but mankind have not always known all of truth. Thus we find new unfoldings or developments of truth throughout all history. Healing the sick by spiritual means only, and as the result of the "prayer of faith" (understanding), was a fundamental teaching of Scripture before Jesus' time. He recognized that "before Abraham was I am; that is, Christ, Truth, always was the healing and saving Principle, and always will be. According to Scripture, Jesus came not "to destroy, but to fulfil." He went about healing the sick, raising the dead, reforming the sinner, and that without medicines. Our critic states. "Prayer is just as effective when answered through the physician or by means of physic or nursing, the one is not less truly a divine act than the other. God gives us the physician and created the herbs and gave them their medicinal properties." The above statement would seem to conflict with the practices of Jesus and his disciples. We find in tracing the history of medicine that it had its inception in pagan idolatry, Esculapius being its "god." Its progress has ever been intensely material, entirely speculative, and absolutely devoid of an intelligent basis. That God did not originate or countenance the drugging system is best proven by its deplorable lack of scientific results, for if God had established the said system and authorized the use of drugs He would have intelligently directed their use, and they would have always produced the same results in a given case. Any intelligent physician, however, knows that drugs do not thus act and that he is never absolutely certain what the results will be. Again, if it be true that God established drugs, why did not Jesus and his disciples recognize them and heal by their means, instead of completely ignoring them as remedial agents and relying instead absolutely upon the power of God.

Our critic says, "God acts through law." This is true, but it is through spiritual, not material law, "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus." The Christian Scientist does not deny disease, sin, etc., in the sense of ignoring them, but he scientifically overcomes them by and through knowing the truth concerning man and man's relation to God. Neither does Christian Science deny the reality or substantiality of any part of God's creation ; it simply affirms that all reality is necessarily spiritual.

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