Article October 21, 1911 Issue

Christian Science bases all its reasoning on God, Spirit,...

Ezra W. Palmer—Denver, Col.

Clay's Review

Christian Science bases all its reasoning on God, Spirit, and man and the universe spiritual, immortal. It draws a clear sharp line of distinction between the real and the unreal. God is real, and that also is real which proceeds from God, postulates universal law, and like God is spiritual and wholly good, and which when applied to man brings peace, harmony, health, and never-ending happiness. Thus to obey the golden rule, to love God and man, to heal the sick and rescue the sinning, would be to live according to reality. Christian Science classes that as unreal which is unlike God. St. John declares God to be Love, therefore hate is not of God. So also sin, sickness, and death, being unlike God, are not real. They are contrary to the nature of God and therefore are evanescent, ephemeral, perishable. Jesus healed the sick, reformed the sinner, raised the dead, because he knew God aright, because he understood the distinction between the truth (reality) and the misconceptions of mortal man (unreality).

The beginner in Christian Science quickly learns that clear thinking is absolutely essential if he is to preserve this distinction between good and evil, between the real and the unreal. If he would follow the Master, he must lay hold on reality, the imperishable things of the Spirit. Christian Science heals the sick, frees the sinner, and opens to every man who desires to know, the way of eternal life; but to do these things, clear thinking is a prime requisite. No medley of sense impressions, no vague generalities of disease as "superfluity of thought" as your article states, no massing of good and evil, will ever accomplish these results, and such modes of thought or action are entirely foreign to Christian Science. Christian Science does not obscure the clear-cut commands of the Decalogue nor any of the commands of the Bible. It lays stress on the Ten Commandments, recognizing them as mighty to lead men to God, to protect society, and to uplift humanity. Perhaps no other religious organization insists so strongly on observing the Decalogue as the Christian Science church. In the Christian Science Sunday schools the basis of the work for the children for several years is the Decalogue, the Lord's Prayer, and the beatitudes, and the children are thoroughly grounded in these as fundamental to the upbuilding of Christian character.

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