Article July 13, 1912 Issue

In a sermon preached in this city on a recent Sunday...

Los Angeles (Cal.) Journal

In a sermon preached in this city on a recent Sunday from the pulpit of one of the orthodox churches, the announcement was made that Christian Scientists and Unitarians are en route to hell. We hope some mistake has been made by the learned gentleman who voiced this view of the matter.

The argument is made that Christian Scientists and Unitarians are Christless, and hence that they are, spiritually, outlaws. This, of course, assumes the correctness of the premises from which the gentleman draws his sweeping deductions, and, at the same time, excludes entirely from consideration the possible correctness of any other view of the matter. But is Christ to be comprehensively and intelligently understood from any one exclusive point of view? There are wide differences of opinion among thinking people as to the correct doctrinal interpretation of the teachings of the New Testament. To be of Christ a part, is to be so influenced by completeness of faith in the superiority of his leadership over that of all others as to act and move and live in loving obedience to all the behests of that leadership. To some his crucifixion has one meaning, and to others it has still another meaning. To some it means vicarious atonement for the sins of the race. To others it symbolizes the fact that in the sacrifice of the flesh, the yielding up of all allegiance to error in human life, is to be found complete redemption from the bondage of sin. Again, in the crucifixion of Jesus is to be seen, in its most complete and august expression, demonstration of the fact that good and evil—God and sin—are absolutely and eternally irreconcilable, and that in order that our daily lives may be truly interpretative of the Christ, of the meaning of his message, it is as inexorably mandatory on man to destroy, crucify, the evil, the sin in his life, in order to be in harmony with the will of God, as it was inevitable that Jesus should submit to be crucified in the flesh rather than yield one iota in his allegiance to Truth.

Accepting Jesus in a sense that enables one to meet the facts and experiences of every-day life in the same spirit that determined his attitude toward the sin, the misery, and the joy of this world, is to become endowed with power to overcome the temptations which are ever crowding upon us to yield to the debasing influences of life. Can it be justly said of a man who so accepts Christ that he is Christless because, forsooth, he may not believe in the doctrine of the vicarious atonement?

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