Article June 29, 1912 Issue

Christian Scientists will agree with your contributor in...

David Anderson—Melbourne, Aus.

Church of England Messenger

Christian Scientists will agree with your contributor in regarding evil as "an evidence of want of harmony in development," and also in his statement that "if the existence of evil is recognized, it postpones indefinitely the hope of the perfection of society," but they join issue with him in his assertion that in Christian Science is to be seen "an impudent attempt to ignore the fact of evil." In Christian Science no attempt of any sort is made to ignore evil and its evil effects. It is true that Christian Scientists regard both of these mortal experiences as unreal, but it is important thoroughly to understand and bear in mind what they mean by unreality. To the Christian Scientist that only is real which is God-created and eternal; and as God is unchangeable and His creation all "very good," evil is manifestly no part of that creation. Good cannot produce evil, and the unreality of evil is a corollary to the omnipotence of good. That which is eternal is indestructible, and if evil were real it would be indestructible. That which, in personification, Jesus characterized as "a liar, and the father of it," can have no place in God's creation.

You contributor admits the unmistakable healing of Christian Science within certain limits, but the Christian Scientist remembers that there is no limit to infinity, and the omnipotence of God is infinite, otherwise it is no omnipotence. With regard to his positive assertion relative to cancer and broken bones, this critic is referred to a book dealing with Christian Science as a religious belief and a therapeutic agency, by a former editor of the Twentieth Century Magazine, who is not a member of the Christian Science fellowship, but who is a lover of fair play. In that book he will find particulars of many cases of organic disease healed through Christian Science, with all details necessary for verification.

The critic, again on his own authority, limits the scope of Christian Science to "respectable persons, not very strong in character, whether for good or evil." One wonders just exactly how many Christian Scientists he knows. But he apparently does not know that Christian Science numbers in its ranks clergymen of his own and other denominations, doctors both of law and medicine, university professors, newspaper editors, school-teachers, and hard-headed business men, some of whom may possibly be the critic's equal in strength of character and ability to judge of what is good for their spiritual and intellectual welfare. It is not necessary to follow your contributor in his effort to bracket Christian Science with Socialism, but every Christian Scientist is at one with him in his conclusions that "the hope of every scheme for social betterment lies in its alliance with Christianity," and that "human wisdom without the divine grace can only lead to most disastrous failure."

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