Article January 11, 1913 Issue

It is unfortunate that the reverend critic should have considered...

Charles K. Skinner—St. Johns, Mich.

Clinton Republican

It is unfortunate that the reverend critic should have considered it necessary to attack other Christians in their work for humanity before learning the facts concerning their teaching. The attempt to tear down the foundations of another in order to build up one's own, has never proved a success. The gentleman, like very many critics of Christian Science, deals in generalities. He tells us that Christian Science "is first wicked in its pagan interpretation of the Lord's Prayer, and the cruel construction put upon sin and atonement, the Lord's supper, the resurrection," etc. Is it true that the hundreds of thousands of devout men and women who were considered exemplary Christian in their former church affiliations, had gained so little spirituality from their teaching that they could be misled by paganism? The spiritual interpretation of the Lord's Prayer of which he speaks is never used except in connection with the authorized version as given in the King James Bible. It is to be found on page 16 of Science and Health, and closes as follows: "For God is infinite, all-power, all Life, Truth, Love, over all, and All." Is this paganism?

It is difficult to understand what our critic means by "cruel construction put upon sin," etc. The sharpest condemnation of sin, both in thought and act, is found in many places in the Christian Science text-book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy, of which I will here cite one: "Hatred, envy, dishonesty, ... make a man sick, and neither material medicine nor Mind can help him permanently, even in body, unless it makes him better mentally" (p. 404). Likewise the chapter on Atonement and Eucharist, when read with regard for the spiritual side of the teachings of Jesus, coincides precisely with his words. Even as now, there were skeptics, critics, and scoffers in the time of the Master. His own disciples could not always seem to discern the spiritual application of his teaching, for in one instance they said, "This is an hard saying; who can hear it?" Jesus' reply was, "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." And so it is that Mrs. Eddy has written and taught of the spiritual side of man and the universe, her reference to matter in its various phases being designed to show its unreality as compared with the enduring nature or all in the spiritual realm.

The critic also speaks of "Eddyism." There is no such teaching, and one who uses the term does so either thoughtlessly or contemptuously. Mrs. Eddy named her teaching Christian Science because she had discerned the hidden Principle of applied Christianity. She always strove to keep her own personality in the background, though she was careful to protect the purity of her teaching as given in the text-book, Science and Health, in order that it might not become confused or adulterated with that of other mental systems.

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