Editorial August 29, 1908 Issue

SPURIOUS MANUSCRIPTS

Archibald McLellan

Our readers are again warned against the circulation of manuscripts which purport to be extracts from letters written by our Leader to her students; alleged shorthand reports of instructions given by certain teachers to their pupils, and other papers of equally doubtful authenticity which are being passed from hand to hand. As has been said before in these columns, these papers are not what they purport to be, and they have been disowned and repeatedly branded as spurious by their reputed authors. The circulation of these papers is a fraud upon those who receive them in good faith and believe them to be clear expositions of Christian Science, when, as a matter of fact, they are positively harmful because they are incorrect both in letter and in spirit, and therefore misleading to those who depend upon them as advanced teachings of divine Science. No one but the author of Science and Health has ever "explained" this book without diluting the Science which it contains.

The principal reason that the circulation of these manuscripts is harmful is that they rob the young student of his individuality and independence, and tend to make him dependent upon the words of another rather than upon his own demonstrable understanding of the teachings of our text-book.

Another reason why these manuscripts should not be circulated is that most of them contain formulas for the treatment of disease and other manifestations of evil, whereas any person who knows anything of Christian Science must know that it is not the repetition of words that destroys evil. It is the understanding of the truth of being—of God and His relation to the universe including man—which heals the sick and destroys all error. Our Leader has given us in Science and Health and her other published writings the clearest and best elucidation of Christ's healing gospel, and for us to allow our attention to be distracted from these works is to waste both time and opportunity.

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