Article November 9, 1912 Issue

In reading the published criticism on a Christian Science...

Frank H. Bell

Mahanoy City (Pa.) Record

In reading the published criticism on a Christian Science lecture recently delivered in your city, I am impressed with the extent to which one's statements may be misjudged and misinterpreted by a critic whose motive in attending is not to be informed, but to gather material for disputation. The attempted interruptions at the lecture, and the incorrect public statements as to what the lecturer said, lead me to believe that some persons were present in a state of mind not in accord with the spirit of courtesy and good will in which our Christian Scientist friends in Mahanoy City provided out of their individual means this lecture, and invited all who wished to hear, though obviously not to be heard.

Our critic need not be disturbed over the lecturer's designation of God as "a principle," because no such designation was given. Where the word Principle is applied to God in Christian Science it is without the article "a," and it is used in such a sense as this, the first definition of the word in the Standard dictionary: "A source or cause from which a thing proceeds; a permanent or fundamental cause." Those only who would deny that God is creator could object to the word Principle as applied to Deity. Christian Science employs other terms to indicate the nature of God, such as Life, Truth, Love. In all authorized Christian Science literature these terms when used as synonyms for God are capitalized, to make clear their meaning.

The Bible says God is Love, and nobody thinks of associating the term as thus employed with things to which the world sometimes refers as love. This will illustrate the unfairness of trying to make it appear that Christian Science confounds Deity with a mere theory. And so, when Christian Science refers to God as Mind, the intent is to convey the idea of infinite and perfect intelligence, and is not likening Deity to the human mind or brain. The lecturer made all this so clear that any effort to garble his meaning is without excuse.

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