Article March 1, 1913 Issue

Your critic says the "basic principle of the teachings" of ...

Royal D. Stearns

Wahoo (Neb.) Wasp

Your critic says the "basic principle of the teachings" of Christian Science "is the doctrine that 'nothing is matter,' 'all is Mind' [Science and Health, pp. 113, 275]." Jesus said to the Samaritan woman that "God is a Spirit" and that He must be worshiped " in spirit and in truth." That is the way Christian Scientists worship the heavenly Father. Can anything be more scientific than the truth? As to the unreality of matter which seems to excite your critic, if he has kep up with the trend of thought of his physical science friends, he has seen the numerous statements which many learned men have made on this subject. Professor Ostwald of the University of Leipsic, Germany, says: "Matter is a thing of thought." Grant Allen asserts, "The universe as known to us consists wholly of Mind," and "matter is a doubtful and uncertain inference of the human intelligence." Huxley states: "After all, what do we know of this terrible matter except as the name of the unknown hypothetical cause of states of our own consciousness?" Professor Browne, Professor Davis of Virginia, Professor Woodhull of Columbia University, Professor Tait of Cambridge, and many other prominent scientists, take a kindred position. When Mrs. Eddy first declared that matter was unreal, she stood alone, and her assertions brought forth unstinted ridicule from physical scientists; but today the thinking, investigating scientist admits that she was correct.

Your critic says, "The Christian Scientist may call hunger and food, etc., illusions." He doubtless loses sight of the teaching of Jesus in Matthew: "Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?" He well knew that mortals must take some thought for the necessities of daily living; yet he also knew that a vision of reality once had, would forever lift the people above that sordid sense and enable them to apprehend more clearly that the same divine Love which took care of the birds and flowers would also take care of them. About the first thing the Christian thinker, from a Christian Science view-point, has to learn, however, is the distinction between his desires and his needs. He wants many things he thinks are good for him; he needs really only what actually is good for him. And to distinguish between what he should and should not be expecting divine Love to give him, is perhaps his greatest want. It is quite common in human experience, if the individual prays at all, for him to ask personal favors, and then he wonders why they are not granted. Undoubtedly one of the first needful lessons for us to acquire is to get rid of so many material desires rather than to have them gratified. The highest Christianity teaches us that God heeds our need, and that when we are willing to stop outlining what we think we need and to place our welfare under the logical operation of divine law, we shall be abundantly satisfied.

After emphasizing the need of giving less and less thought to the material things of life and putting more and more trust in the spiritual, Mrs. Eddy writes: "The divine Mind, which forms the bud and blossom, will care for the human body, even as it clothes the lily" (Science and Health, p. 62).

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