Article June 11, 1910 Issue

If Christian Scientists really held the extraordinary...

M. S. Bruen

Irish Times

If Christian Scientists really held the extraordinary views which are attributed to them, these would, indeed, be a strange medley. In reply to some of these criticisms, may I say that Christian Science does not imply or admit that sin does not bring suffering. On the contrary, from one end of the text-book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," to the other it is reiterated that "they who sin must suffer" (p. 37). Nor does it assert, or imply, that the human mind can pardon, or has any power to overcome, sin and suffering; but "the pardon of divine mercy is the destruction of error" (Ibid., p. 329). The God of Christian Science is the Almighty, the all-loving creator, who made all things good, even "very good."

Christian Science repudiates the suggestion that the Almighty, whom the beloved disciple saw to be Love, made man capable of murder, and then visited the crime with a cruelty worse than the murderer's. It does not admit the illogical conclusion that, if suffering were sent or permitted by the creator, it were either wise or possible to escape from it by the use of drugs and medicaments; but it shows that sin and materiality, being negations, the supposed opposites of good—a state of ignorance—are overcome in human experience by the perception and admission of good. Christian Science acknowledges to the full the salvation which Christ Jesus brought to mankind, knowing that sinners are saved from sin, disease, and death by the love of which he was the exponent. It does not wait for a future world salvation, endeavoring to put it off as long as possible with the aid of doctoring, nursing, and health regulations, but accepts the apostle's declaration that "now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation."

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