Christian Scientists rely entirely on God, and as His...

John M. Dean

Memphis (Tenn.) Commercial Appeal

Christian Scientists rely entirely on God, and as His truth lives forever, they are not in the least disturbed as to the future of their religion. The entire trend of Christian Science is away from personality and toward Principle, and with this attitude they are so content as to be unruffled by dire speculative predictions which are fathered by a wish that they may come to pass.

Many of the statements made concerning Christian Science at this particular time would be extremely interesting but for one important thing—they lack the saving grace of correctness. However, we need not expect a logical or correct statement of Christian Science from an enemy, a misinformed person, or one who is disqualified by a lack of information; and to be a graduate of a theological seminary confers no greater qualification for correctly defining Christian Science, than would a perusal of the Christian Science text-book render one an authority on the tenets of another faith.

It is freely granted that Mrs. Eddy taught a religion of love and that she was ofttimes beset by enemies who sought to disturb her peace of mind, but this was also the experience of even Christ Jesus, the Founder of this new dispensation of love. Though the very embodiment of love and gentleness, he was maligned, persecuted, and finally crucified by a fanatical mob, which was incited by the intolerant clerics of that day. Love, preached and practised, always excites the opposite human manifestation of hate, and Mrs. Eddy's experience was no exception to that rule, which seems even yet to be operative under circumstances which should deter the most rabid critic from saying things as unnecessary as they are unkind.

Before presuming to make correct statements of Christian Science, the gentleman should have known that it does not teach the unreality of death in the sense that it is a mortal manifestation, but it does claim that, as God is not the author of sin, sickness, and death, they are unreal concepts which will gradually disappear before a correct realization of God's omnipotent truth, until we reach that day when "there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away."

On page 254 of Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy says: "During the sensual ages, absolute Christian Science may not be achieved prior to the change called death, for we have not the power to demonstrate what we do not understand. But the human self must be evangelized. This task God demands us to accept lovingly today, and to abandon so fast as practical the material, and to work out the spiritual which determines the outward and actual." She never taught that she herself would be able, on this plane, to attain to the heights of her revelation. She simply stated a truth which is the ultimate goal of life, and said like Paul: "I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."

The great Baptist religion contains enough of truth to demand the entire time and talent of its ministers, and time devoted to widely advertised attempts to pull down a sister faith is a digression from that constructive policy which is the very essence of true religion and will result in nothing better than mere sensationalism.

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