Article October 30, 1909 Issue

Our critic states that "Christ is the same yesterday, today,...

W. C. Williams

Baltimore (Md.) American

Our critic states that "Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever; and is just as able to heal today as when he said to the leper, 'Be thou clean.' " He must also believe Jesus said that all those who followed him could do the works, and greater works, and commanded that they heal the sick as well as preach the gospel. Because Mrs. Eddy has made prominent this neglected command and obeyed it, she is maligned and denounced by those who do not obey it. It is because Mrs. Eddy teaches that the Christ doctrines are the only doctrines, that Jesus' personality, "his atonement, his miracles, and his resurrection" are true, and for our example, and because she glorifies his works, that hundreds of thousands all over the world are Christian Scientists, helping to prove that Christ is the same today, and the majority have been healed of all manner of diseases. Is it belittling divine Truth to acknowledge it as the only truth and to endeavor to live up to it as far as it is conceived? Is it belittling to endeavor to understand it and to prove your understanding by the fruits? We read in the Bible, "Knock, and it shall be opened unto you." Mystery is not truth.

Bald statements without their context made by our friend do not appeal to those who have studied Christian Science (and as it is a science, it has to be studied) and are not arguments. For instance, he quotes: "Matter has no existence; all is mind." This, though, is being acknowledged by many natural scientists. Christian Science states that as God is Spirit, man, the child of God, is spiritual. This does not mean that man as he appears is not very material to those who believe that materiality is reality; nor does it mean that spiritual man is realized by all as the only man at the present time, and the nothingness of matter proved to the satisfaction of all now as Jesus proved it. Disease like materiality, does not exist in reality, but the lie of disease, like all lies, is very real to us until we know and prove that it is a lie; then we know it is not the truth and did not emanate from Truth.

The claim is made that Christian Science is inconsistent, because it heals diseases that do not exist. If disease did really exist—was God-ordained—Christian Science could not cure it, nor could any science; but the apparent disease is healed, and though this is generally understood, in common usage the word "apparent" is left out. Reality to Christian Scientists is that which is eternal, never-changing, made in the image of God. All that is temporal, therefore, in this sense only, is unreal. It is the misconception of this distinction that causes the unthinking criticism of Christian Science. If our critic believes in the immaculate conception he must realize that Jesus had less materiality to overcome than most of us, but there is nothing in Christian Science that claims he was "not a personal man." The Christ-truth, the God-element that inspired and actuated Jesus, was not personal, though individualized in him.

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