Article June 13, 1908 Issue

Christian Science does not teach that there is no earth,...

George Shaw Cook—Quincy, Ill.

The Herald

Christian Science does not teach that there is no earth, although it does teach that there is no actual reality to matter and evil. It shows that matter and evil seem perfectly real to those who are in the mortal sense of existence, but that this mortal, finite, fleeting sense of life is not actual or real, and that the material sense of the universe is not the true sense thereof. . . . Christian Science shows that every individual can begin now so to spiritualize his thought of the universe that eventually the material sense of it will disappear, and when the understanding of the eternal substance of Spirit and its creation becomes universal, "the former [material universe] shall not be remembered nor come into mind." Christian Scientists realize that they have only begun to achieve this spiritualization of thought which will ultimately banish matter from the universe, but they understand also that this transformation can never come unless a beginning is made, and they believe that the time to begin is now. Mrs. Eddy in Science and Health refers to the fact that St. John saw "a new heaven and a new earth" while he was still on our plane of existence, and says that this fact unmistakably indicates that "what the human mind terms matter and spirit indicates states and stages of consciousness" (p. 573).

If the reverend gentleman prefers to believe that material ways and means of healing are the God-ordained means which men should employ in this age, in spite of the fact that Jesus and his disciples healed spiritually, of course no one will be inclined to dispute his right to that belief, least of all Christian Scientists. However, it does seem a little inconsistent that ministers of the gospel of Christ should so strenuously advocate the use of material means in healing. The first Christian healed "all manner of disease" without the use of drugs or other material means, if the Gospel record is correct. He healed thus, notwithstanding the fact that medicine had been practised for some twenty centuries prior to his advent. He came to fulfil the law and will of God. If his manner of healing sickness was lawful and obedient to the will of God then, it must be so now, for the reason that God's law never varies. . . . It will be freely admitted by those who are acquainted with the facts, that in spite of the supposed progress of medical practice there is an ever-growing list of diseases which medical treatment does not cure. The mere fact that Christian Science has healed in many instances almost if not quite every one of these so-called incurable diseases, would be a good argument for the sanity of adopting the Christcure in preference to material and man-made systems.

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