Article December 7, 1912 Issue

My attention has been called to a criticism of Christian Science...

Etla W. Palmer—Denver, Col.

Svensk-Amerikanska Western

My attention has been called to a criticism of Christian Science in a late issue of your paper. The gentleman evidently bases his criticism of Christian Science on very cursory and superficial examination. He visited a meeting of Christian Scientists, listened to the testimonies of healing, and rashly concluded that, because testimonies of healing by other than material remedies were vouched for by a number present, these people were suffering from delusions or hallucinations.

It will be remembered that the conclusion of this critic regarding Christian Scientists is practically the same as that of those who failed to understand and therefore opposed healing of physical ills by the power of prayer in the times of early Christianity. A certain ruler solemnly assured St. Paul on one occasion that much learning had made him mad, although this same Paul knew enough about God to raise the young man Eutychus from the dead, annul the poison of a viper's bite, and do other deeds in the name of God apparently incomprehensible to the uninstructed minds of those about him. St. Paul in commenting on this inability of the uninstructed human mind to grasp spiritual things, and its tendency to call them delusive and improbable, says: "God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. ... But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."

This critic made the mistake of assuming that Christian Science is based on ignorance and human blindness, but nothing could be farther from the truth. Christian Science is based on right and scientific knowledge of God, and it has won its way all over the civilized world because it satisfies the hunger of humanity for a true, right relationship with God, destroys disease, and gives every man who honestly studies it a sense of peace and genuine spiritual poise which he had been unable to gain from any other source.

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