Article May 17, 1913 Issue

In a lecture reported in a recent issue of your paper, a...

Frederick Dixon

Loughborough (England) Herald

In a lecture reported in a recent issue of your paper, a clergyman takes exception to the term Christian Science on the ground that the theology of that movement repudiates the orthodox teaching of the incarnation. May I say, first of all, that I am not quite sure what the orthodox teaching concerning the incarnation is. What I am quite sure of is, that the various orthodox churches have persecuted one another for centuries on the very ground that their respective dogmas were antichristian. There is, however, a test of Christianity contained in all the gospels to which I am sure the critic will be willing to subscribe. In the second gospel it is summed up in this way: "These signs shall follow them that believe," and among the signs is this: "They shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover." Here is a test which reduces a man's words to demonstration, and is a good deal more definite than a mere verbal acceptance of some dogma of the incarnation.

Christian Scientists, however, do accept the gospel teaching of the incarnation. In the exact proportion in which a man gains the Mind of Christ is he able to heal the sick, and to that extent is divine Mind manifested in the flesh. Jesus said, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free;" make you free, that is, from the flesh, for "the flesh profiteth nothing." The incarnation is the knowledge of the truth which comes to the human being, and as this knowledge becomes complete, the victory is obtained over the flesh, which "cannot please God." This was the victory obtained by Enoch, by Moses, and by Elijah; the victory so perfectly won and demonstrated by Jesus of Nazareth, which he called on all his followers to participate in by repeating his works, while they were in the flesh, so that they might become "perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." This is the gospel teaching of the incarnation which makes men brethren.

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