Article April 2, 1910 Issue

In the Daily News of Feb. 1 it was reported that during...

H. Coulson Fairchild

Passaic (N. J.) News

In the Daily News of Feb. 1 it was reported that during the after-dinner remarks at a meeting of the Presbyterian Brotherhood in this city, two visiting members of the clergy took occasion, while extolling the merits of tobacco smoking, incidentally to condemn Christian Science. Why this should have seemed necessary to the reverend gentlemen we are at a loss to determine, unless it may be that they have heard of cases in which the cigarette and other forms of tobacco habit have been permanently cured by Christian Science treatment, and in discounting the future foresee the time when it will be necessary to refrain from the weed in order to maintain the dignity of their calling.

Christian Science is sometimes criticized because it does not accord to evil the place and power which have been ascribed to it in the past. Christian Science teaches that evil is uncreated and unsustained by God; that it is therefore not entitled to place or power; the belief in the power of evil is all that seems to sustain it; when the omnipotence of God is universally acknowledged, evil will be selfdestroyed. It is plain that Christian Scientists cannot consistently indulge in evil after having declared that it is unreal and delusive, for they would then be following the delusive and unreal. To bring the thing down to an illustration, we might say that the reason a man smokes tobacco is because he believes there is real pleasure in it, while the average Christian Scientist has learned that there is no real pleasure in smoking, hence does not smoke. The results in Christian Science justify the promise. A good tree brings forth good fruit. Christian Scientists are willing to stand squarely upon the platform that the use of drugs, narcotics, etc., is not in accord with the high standard of the teachings of Christ Jesus. Indeed we cannot imagine a more incongruous thing than an exemplar of Christianity with a cigar between his lips, and it is a sad commentary upon the Christian church when it is deemed necessary to endorse the use of tobacco in order to "win men to Christ." If it is thus necessary to temporize with men in order to interest them in the church organization, why not admit that the church is a social organization? Our critic says that if "tobacco is tabooed in the Christian church, such methods will not win men to Christ." How does he account for the fact that Christian Science churches reach so many men upon just the opposite platform, to wit: that, unless one by one all the false thoughts and weaknesses of men are overcome, it will be impossible for us to gain dominion over sin and disease. Men are coming to Christian Science on this proposition, and while they are not asked to abandon any habit by force of human will, many things which formerly seemed to attract lose their seeming power, as naturally as darkness gives place to light and sin to holiness.

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