Article July 20, 1912 Issue

Some weeks ago comment was permitted in your paper on...

David Anderson—Melbourne, Australia.

Reporter

Some weeks ago comment was permitted in your paper on an attack on Christian Science which appeared in an inter-denominational religious monthly," reproduced locally for Australian circulation. A further attack appears in the current number of the same publication, and appeal is therefore again made to your impartiality for that opportunity of reply which is denied by the religious paper in question.

It would be more satisfactory if critics of Christian Science would substantiate their quotations from Mrs. Eddy's writings by reference to the book and page in which the quotation might be sought. Christian Scientists believe that the spiritual man of God's creating has an indestructible life, and that "as mortals begin to understand Spirit, they give up the belief that there is any true existence apart from God" (Science and Health, p. 283). Christian Scientists do not regard death as a kindly friend, through whose welcoming portals they are to be ushered into a heaven of boundless bliss. They look upon death as an unrelenting enemy, "the last enemy that shall be destroyed;" and they believe that, if death is never to be overcome, such affirmation would never have been made regarding it. Jesus taught by precept and example that death can be overcome by spiritual life, and Christian Scientists believe his statement, "If a man keep my saying he shall never see death." He gave the lie to death by raising the dead, and finally by his own supreme victory over death and the grave.

On page 43 of "Unity of Good" Mrs. Eddy writes: "The achievement of this ultimatum of Science, complete triumph over death, requires time and immense spiritual growth. I have by no means spoken of myself, I cannot speak of myself as 'sufficient for these things.' I insist only upon the fact, as it exists in divine Science, that man dies not, and on the words of the Master in support of this verity,—words which can never 'pass away till all be fulfilled.' " This critic says that every other religious system but Christian Science at least claims progress. Mrs. Eddy says (Science and Health, p. 233), "Every day makes its demands upon us for higher proofs rather than professions of Christian power. These proofs consist solely in the destruction of sin, sickness, and death by the power of Spirit, as Jesus destroyed them. This is an element of progress, and progress is the law of God, whose law demands of us only what we can certainly fulfil." From Genesis to Revelation there is no sentence which the Christian Scientist accepts more fully in its simple letter than that which the critic asserts the Christian Science teaching directly contradicts, "The wages of sin is death;" and it is equally misleading to assert that Christian Science teaches that there is no sin. The higher mission of Christian Science is emphatically the destruction of sin, and Christian Science nowhere encourages its indulgence.

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