Article March 19, 1910 Issue

In Christian Science, the reverend critic averred, the...

William J. Bonnin

Rochdale (Eng.) Observer

In Christian Science, the reverend critic averred, the health of the body was made the chief feature, whereas in the New Testament it was the salvation of the soul that was emphasized.

This severance of these two questions as two separate and independent considerations is what Christian Science shows to have been the open door for schism and naught but a pernicious influence upon the Christian church. Christian Science does not make "the health of the body the chief feature," but it does insist that the healing power of the Christ is with us alway, and that, with the knowledge of the truth, discordant conditions, the supposititious exceptions to the perfect law of God, must disappear. If they do not, the truth is not in us, and we are like the woman bound by Satan, in bondage to a lie. It is not a little strange that earnest students of the Bible, familiar with all its definite declarations, from the promise in Exodus, "If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, ... I will put none of these diseases upon thee," to Jesus' rebuke to the scribes, "Whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and walk?" should be able for a moment to entertain the idea that sin and sickness and suffering can be anything other than indissolubly connected, related, and interdependent. And if this is so, true healing, as distinguished from mere doctoring of disease, becomes at once inseparable from religion.

One has only to reflect upon the continual demonstration the Founder of Christianity gave of the truth of his message, through its power to assuage the pain of the world and fulfil all that Isaiah had foretold, upon the undivided mandate to his disciples to preach the gospel and heal the sick, upon his promise that those who believe on him shall do the works that he did, upon the healing work that ever accompanied the preaching of the apostles and continued in the early church for the first few centuries; one has only to reflect upon these facts to be convinced that to preach a Christianity that has no practical side to it and would postpone salvation from misery as unattainable on this side of the grave, is to preach a Christianity fundamentally differing from that of its Founder and shorn of its most potent and compassionate truths.

Enjoy 1 free Sentinel article or audio program each month, including content from 1898 to today.

Send a comment to the editors
NEXT IN THIS ISSUE
Article
The speaker is quoted as referring to Christian Science...
March 19, 1910
Contents

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit