Article August 2, 1913 Issue

I have read with some interest the report of the Christian...

Algernon Hervey Bathurst—London, England.

Church Family Newspaper

I have read with some interest the report of the Christian Evidence conference which appears in a recent issue, and may I be allowed to say a word on one point mentioned by Canon Masterman? He referred to Christian Science as "doing away with the idea of a personal God," and, much as I regret being compelled to contradict the speaker, I am bound to do so, since no system of philosophy or religion has ever insisted with greater vehemence upon the personality of God in the correct or spiritual meaning of the word than does Christian Science. On page 116 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mrs. Eddy writes: "As the words person and personal are commonly and ignorantly employed, they often lead, when applied to Deity, to confused and erroneous conceptions of divinity and its distinction from humanity. If," she continues, "the term personality, as applied to God, means infinite personality, then God is infinite Person,—in the sense of infinite personality, but not in the lower sense."

Undoubtedly the most important feature of Christian Science is its teaching as to the true nature of God and man, and it would be difficult to find a clearer and more scientific or demonstrable explanation of this important point than is found in the Christian Science text-book. Christian Science teaches and proves, as did the Founder of Christianity and his disciples two thousand years ago, that God, omnipresent and omnipotent good, is ever present and ever available to those willing to recognize Him. "The Son," Jesus declared, "can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do;" and St. John made that magnificent declaration, "Now are we the sons of God." It is therefore surely possible for each individual to recognize God, or to have a personal God, only to the extent that he understands that Spirit, or Love, to quote but two of the synonyms of the Deity mentioned in the Bible, is not finite, is not personal in the sense of a human personality, but is infinite, and that man, being the son of God, must necessarily express these qualities. This, of course, brings us back to the great question of creation, for it is obvious that the material or mortal man is scarcely godlike.

If, however, we admit, as all Christians affirm, that God, Spirit, is the only creator, the First Cause, then His creation, or the effect of this cause, must be like or manifest the qualities of this cause or creator. Whatever does not express godlike qualities is, therefore, not part of this creation. Now it is the privilege and duty of Christians to prove not only in theory, but in practise, that God is all-powerful and ever-present, and the fact that infinite good is in reality omnipotent and omnipresent, makes it possible for the practical and scientific nature of this teaching to be demonstrated, with the result that the belief in evil, or that which is not godlike, lessens, until eventually it will be recognized to be unreal, or, as Jesus declared, "not in the truth, because there is no truth in him [devil or evil]."

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