Article August 30, 1913 Issue

A recent clerical critic tells us that "Christian Scientists...

Charles K. Skinner

The Berrien Springs (Mich.) Era.

A recent clerical critic tells us that "Christian Scientists are not Christians." He is only one of the many who have come to scoff, but remain to pray, and afterward to learn what constitutes a Christian. Doubtless he will remember that Jesus laid down but one rule by which his followers should be known, and that was that they should do the same works which he did. He said, "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also," and further, "If ye love me, keep my commandments." Is it the mark of a Christian to misrepresent other workers? St. Paul wrote, "Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things."

We are told that "Christian Scientists deny God." This is a mistake. On page 497 of Science and Health are these words: "We acknowledge and adore one supreme and infinite God." We are also told that "God is incorporeal, divine, supreme, infinite Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love" (p. 465). The gentleman objects to God as "Principle," but the authorized definitions of the word are, "Beginning, original cause, origin, source." Will he tell us what the objection could be to recognizing God as the "beginning," or "great First Cause"? St. John says, "In the beginning was the Word. ... and the Word was God."

If the really sincere investigator of Christian Science will read the text–book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," from the view–point of its author, viz., God as the creator of the spiritual man and universe, all seeming obstacles will melt away. The Scriptures inform us that "God is a Spirit," and that He created man in His image and likeness. If this is true, the man of God's creating is spiritual and not mortal, and Mrs. Eddy's references to man all through the text–book will be found to be logical. Christian Science teaches that the spiritual creation described in the first chapter of Genesis is one that honors God, that He made all, and saw that "it was very good." No theologian up to the present time has been able to reconcile the record of the creation of mortal man with that of the spiritual man as both being creations of God.

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