Article November 9, 1912 Issue

I wish to correct an erroneous impression contained in...

Charles M. Howe

St. Joseph (Mo.) Gazette

I wish to correct an erroneous impression contained in the article in a recent issue of your paper, in regard to a criminal who, the article says, has embraced Christian Science and thereby "hopes to cheat the electric chair," etc. Christian Science cannot be employed in any such way to defeat the ends of justice. If he or any others have such an opinion, they are greatly mistaken, as Christian Science does not in any sense countenance or condone wrong-doing. The Scripture tells us of those who say: "Let us do evil, that good may come," that their punishment is just. In Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy says: "Evil which obtains in the bodily senses, but which the heart condemns, has no foundation; but if evil is uncondemned, it is undenied and nurtured. Under such circumstances, to say there is no evil, is an evil in itself" (p. 448). Those who have a superficial concept of Christian Science, and are prejudiced against it, might say that they can do anything and escape punishment, but this is just the opposite of the true idea. Christian Science teaches that they who sin must suffer, and that it is right that they should. It is not true that Christian Science teaches there is no hell for the sinner. If this young man had earlier embraced Christian Science it would have saved him from crime. In any event, it would have led him to repentance and reformation, as judgment and justice are two of the most prominent statutes, and Christian Science does not cover up sin and iniquity, but brings it to light and destroys it. Mrs. Eddy says: "A sinner can receive no encouragement from the fact that Science demonstrates the unreality of evil, for the sinner would make a reality of sin,—would make that real which is unreal, and thus heap up 'wrath against the day of wrath.' He is joining in a conspiracy against himself,—against his own awakening to the awful unreality by which he has been deceived. Only those who repent of sin and forsake the unreal, can fully understand the unreality of evil" (Science and Health, p. 339).

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