Article November 12, 1910 Issue

I am willing to agree with the gentleman that no cult is...

James Phelps

Milwaukee (Wis.) Sentinel

I am willing to agree with the gentleman that no cult is able to reach fully the needs of humanity; but Christian Science is not a cult in the sense in which he is using this term; it is a science, and preeminently Christian, as it is based on the teachings of Jesus the Christ. If we get rid of sin, I am sure that we will not have to suffer with a toothache, or any other ache. "To hide your head like an ostrich in the sand, and imagine that there is no sin, no sickness, no disease," is not the teaching of Christian Science; and as there is much misunderstanding on this point, permit me to try to make the teaching of Christian Science in this regard plain to our critic and your readers.

Christian Science is based on the Biblical statement that God created every thing; that without Him was nothing made that was made; and when He saw what He had made, it was. very good. Now, we claim that sin, disease, and death cannot possibly belong in the class covered by the words "very good." They could not have been created by a God who is wholly good, who is of purer eyes than to behold evil, and who could not look on iniquity. Jesus Christ said, "I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil;" yet he went about constantly healing the sick, forgiving the sinner, and raising the dead, thereby destroying sin, sickness, and death. While we take this position unreservedly, and defend it fearlessly, at the same time we recognize that "this malevolent triad" (Science and Health, p. 357), sin, sickness, and death, seem quite real to that consciousness which is unillumined by the truth of being, and the Christian Science text-book does not refer to them as creatures of imagination. When a Christian Scientist encounters the phenomena called evil, he does not dodge the issue, nor hide his head in the sand, but meets it with the same understanding our Master had when he said: "Ye are of your father the devil. ... When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it."

When one has thus dealt with evil, not once, but thousands of times, and sees it and its evil fruits subside and then disappear, he has good reason for concluding that the position is correct and scientific. If in addition to this he is able to instruct others to go and do likewise, and the same results follow their efforts, may he not be pardoned for feeling secure and safe in abiding undisturbed "in the secret place of the most High"?

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