Article August 24, 1912 Issue

In an issue of your periodical you published a contribution...

Alfred Farlow—Cincinnati, Ohio.

Lancet Clinic

In an issue of your periodical you published a contribution under the caption "Pseudo Science," which makes the charge that Christian Science is "neither science nor Christianity." The writer declares that it "contains not a single basic principle which will admit of a scientific demonstration." Evidently he assumes that nothing which is not based upon material observation or matter is entitled to the name "science." We insist that there is something to know about spiritual being; that it is true, and hence justly entitled to the name "science," and that there is no legitimate authority for restricting the term "science" to material things.

Since our critic has made the assertion that Christian Science is not Christianity, let him show wherein it differs from the fundamental teaching of Christianity; namely, that God is Spirit, that Spirit is the only cause, the "Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending." Again, many of the foremost scientists of this age approximate to the teaching of Christian Science regarding the constituency or nature of matter. For example, Lord Balfour declares that "matter has been not only explained, but explained away." In his "Evolution of Matter," Gustave Le Bon, the great French scientist, who is probably the most advanced thinker of the age along this particular line, makes still more sweeping declarations. He asserts that he has caused matter to vanish without return, and that he has found that it ceases to be matter altogether, and he also declares that "energy is not indestructible. It is unceasingly consumed, and tends to vanish like the matter which represents one of its forms." Will our critic insist that these men are not scientists?

Jesus Christ was not only the Founder of Christianity, but the greatest scientist of any age, and he established the truths upon which Mrs. Eddy has based her entire teaching. While it is important to consider the conclusions of the scientists of our age, it is of greater importance to consider the conclusions of the master scientist of all ages, since his scientific discoveries and practises have been more resultful than those of any other man of any age. He said, "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing," which means that Spirit alone gives life and existence; matter contributes nothing whatever to the existence of anything. When the woman afflicted probably with what is today called rheumatism, of eighteen years' standing, was brought to him, he did not say the woman had rheumatism and needed medical treatment. He declared, "Satan hath bound [her], lo, these eighteen years," and he defined Satan as a "liar." He said he "abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him," which means he does not truly abide, because there is no "truth" or reality in him. Satan was the term which the "great Physician" applied to error which is opposed to truth, and which constitutes the basis of all lies, and he said, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." Free from what? Free from everything that interferes with legitimate harmony, health, prosperity, and happiness.

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