Editorial May 9, 1908 Issue

ANOTHER ERROR CORRECTED

Archibald McLellan

The following item from a Boston Transcript of recent date is but another indication that the erroneous concept of Christian Science and of the attitude of its followers in the matter of charity, which has so long held sway in the minds of many people, is giving place to the truth. These people, and unfortunately some newspapers, have for years and without cause diligently proclaimed that Christian Scientists are stony-hearted and do nothing toward the alleviation of suffering; in fact, they have taken delight in branding Christian Scientists as the most unfeeling and callous of mortals. The Transcript says, –

The handsome fund raised by the Christian Scientists for the relief of suffering Chelsea marks the end of an era. From this day forth, methinks, the anti-Christian anti-Scientists will miss one of their handiest gibes. It was jolly, you know, to rail at the faithful for their abstinence from charity. It was amusing to argue that their refusal to help the "poor an needy ones" implied a belief that poverty was but an error of the mind. Upon such jeering the Chelsea fund has adjusted a quietus. Indeed the newer tendencies of the movement all point toward increasing liberalism. Each year it grows easier, intellectually, to become a Christian Scientist.

The writer of the above is mistaken in supposing that in contributing to the relief of those who have suffered loss through the Chelsea fire the Christian Scientists, either as individuals or as an organization, have in the slightest degree changed their views or their practice in such matters. He has simply seen with his own eyes that which he had not known of heretofore, and like most people under such circumstances, he believes that something new has happened. Not only are the individual and private charities of Mrs. Eddy and her followers large and practical,– and no class of people do more in this way, in proportion to their means, than do Christian Scientists, but during the past twenty years or more no public appeal for help has been made to which the Christian Scientists have not responded promptly and liberally. The San Francisco earthquake, the Galveston flood, the Chinese famine, the Armenian and Macedonian massacres, and many other catastrophes, have all furnished occasion for marked benevolence on the part of Christian Scientists.

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ANOTHER ERROR CORRECTED

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