Article January 30, 1909 Issue

Unbiased investigation will prove beyond question that...

J. V. Dittemore

Marlborough (N. Y.) Record

Unbiased investigation will prove beyond question that Christian Scientists are neither "weak-minded" nor "easily tempted by illusive bait," but that they have embraced this faith because it has been proven to them through actual experience to have met their needs, in sickness as well as in health, in a more practical and efficacious way than did the systems previously employed. Neither Mrs. Eddy nor any other Christian Scientist ever claimed to have "the power within their frail anatomy" to accomplish anything. They do affirm, however, that if the Bible is true and if history is reliable, both Christ Jesus and his followers for three hundred years were able to prove that Christianity, when correctly understood and applied, gives to mortals a full salvation from sickness as well as from sin, and that if all the "works" promised by the Master are not forthcoming to-day, it is not because God has changed His laws, but because mankind have failed to prove the dominion which faith should provide. Christian Science affirms that sin, suffering, and disease are wholly abnormal and illegitimate; that they do not exist in accordance with any law, but are the phenomena of the false beliefs of human experience, the result of failure to know God aright. It affirms that "the will of the Father" is the same now as two thousand years ago, and that the proper knowledge and application of God's laws to-day will accomplish the same results as they did during the ministry of the Master. ...

Our critic endeavors to prove that in his healing work Jesus Christ did not depend on spiritual means, but relied on material remedies. In proof of this contention he mentions the incident of putting clay and spittle on the eyes of the blind man. If it was not the spiritual understanding of Christ which healed, but was the clay, it seems queer that our specialists of to-day do not prescribe so efficacious a remedy when a case of blindness is under their care. Surely that which was able to produce so marvelous a result in one instance is at least worthy of a trial in our own age. It is manifestly unfair to compare the failures of the present immature practice of Christian Science with the successes of any other system. The only fair method would be to compare both the failures and successes of one system with the failures and successes of the other. If this be done, Christian Science has no fear of suffering by the comparison.

Christian Science does not deny the reality of disease as an experience of mortal existence, nor does it ignore pain and suffering. It does declare, however, that all that is of God is real and permanent, but that all the discords of this world are destructible and therefore unreal in the sense of having no inherent power of continuance when the truth which is equal to their destruction is correctly understood and thereby made available. Christian Science affirms that humanity's salvation must come through the metaphysical practice described by Jesus as "knowing the truth," and that in proportion as the truth about God and His creation is understood, mortals will be made free from the bondage of every discord which hinders their realization of the kingdom of heaven—the ever-present possibility to those who earnestly strive to follow in the way pointed out by the Master.

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