Article July 15, 1911 Issue

The critic alleges that the teachings of Christian Science...

Howard C. Van Meter

Ashland (Ore.) Tidings

The critic alleges that the teachings of Christian Science are contrary to the Bible. Had he said contrary to his interpretation of the Bible it would have been a fairer criticism. Passages in the Scriptures have been construed in all sorts of ways and made to justify the most peculiar methods, so that it naturally occurs to the inquirer, "How is one to tell which is the true interpretation?" Jesus said, "By their fruits ye shall know them." If Christian Science insists upon evidence today from the application of Christianity, that is in excess of the expectations of other religionists who are satisfied with the promise of heaven hereafter, its teaching must naturally differ from the others, but this difference should not warrant the implication that this teaching is wrong.

The impartial observer notes that the study of Christian Science arouses a deeper interest in the Bible. This is expected, since it is declared on page 497 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy, "As adherents of Truth, we take the inspired Word of the Bible as our sufficient guide to eternal Life." The Bible ceases to be a book of contradictions as heretofore, and with the continuance of the study, aided by the splendid commentary mentioned above, much that was mysterious and which he had been told he was not expected to know, becomes clear, and his aspiration mounts up to the approximation of such a knowledge of God and its accompaniment as Jesus voiced in the seventeenth chapter of John: "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent."

This exact or demonstrable knowledge he believes to be true Science. Jesus' utilization of it brought immediate and decisive results in abolishing evil and its effects, sin, sickness, and death, and in referring to this knowledge which characterized his true selfhood, he showed how universal it would become in the words, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also." Jesus dealt with evil, but at no time recognized it as coming from God. In fact he spoke decidedly and emphatically to the contrary in the words, "Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it."

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