Article August 2, 1913 Issue

It is but natural that as a doctor and churchman your...

John W. Harwood

Manchester (England) City News

It is but natural that as a doctor and churchman your corresponded "Medicus" should disagree with the teaching of Christian Science on the subject of healing sickness and of overcoming sin; but we find this in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (pp. 163, 164): "Dr. Mason Good, a learned professor in London, said: 'The effects of medicine on the human system are in the highest degree uncertain, except, indeed, that it has already destroyed more lives than war, pestilence, and famine, all combined.' ... Sir John Forbes, M.D., F.R.S., Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, London, said, 'No systematic or theoretical classification of diseases or of therapeutic agents, ever yet promulgated, is true, or anything like the truth, and none can be adopted as a safe guidance in practise.'" These statements by members of the medical faculty do not inspire any great confidence in their methods. Most of the adherents of Christian Science had already tried all that materia medica could offer before looking elsewhere for healing, and it is because they have found healing, and others see this healing taking place, that the Christian Science movement is making such rapid progress. The only way that any one can hold up this movement is to show a better system.

"How profoundly mysterious it is to be told that disease is an illusion, for it is mental, not a condition of matter," says our critic. How much more mysterious it would be to believe that disease is absolutely true and real, for we should be compelled to admit that God, who created all that was created, "and, behold, it was very good," created disease and suffering; and if this were admitted, who would dare, even it they could, oppose God's plan and will by healing the sick? Jesus said he came not "to destroy the law, or the prophets: ... but to fulfil," and in fulfilling God's law, sin and disease vanished into their native nothingness. Our critic objects to the classification of sin with disease, and yet as a churchman he must be cognizant of the same classification by Jesus when he said to the man sick of the palsy, "Thy sins be forgiven thee," and to the people who murmured against this, "Whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and walk," showing in this case that the destruction of sin resulted in physical healing. Jesus defined Satan, devil, or evil, as a liar, and the father of lies: "there is no truth in him;" so when Christian Science relegates evil and disease into nothing more than an illusion or falsity, it is but following his method, and the remedy he used is the one Christian Scientists use. Christian Science repudiates suggestion and declares that there is but one Mind, who is infinite intelligence and Truth. As we obey the injunction of Paul, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus" (know the truth as Jesus did), we are able to destroy intimations of sin and disease.

To object to the teaching of Christian Science simply because it is not in accordance with preconceived views, will not influence others. Christian Scientists do not ignore any part of Christ's work. The test as to the true Christian, a believer in and follower of Christ Jesus, was given by him in these words: "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also," and, "These signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; ... they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover." If materia medica and scholastic theology cannot stand this test, they will go down before the true teachings of Jesus Christ, as reiterated by Christian Science with "signs following."

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