Article September 6, 1913 Issue

I have read the ministerial attack on Christian Science in a...

H. Farmer Hall

Eastbourne (England) Gazette

I have read the ministerial attack on Christian Science in a recent issue. Its method is conventional. Having gained misconceptions of the teachings of Christian Science, the eritic proceeds to state these misconceptions in the first part of his letter, and then to occupy the remaining space in showing the foolishness of these views. I do not for one moment doubt his sincerity in doing what he believes to be a public service, when exposing such blasphemous statements as he attributes to Christian Science; but as no Christian Scientist ever for one instant believed any such thing, his letter simply demonstrates the fact that what needs correction is the view of the reverend critic and not the views of Christian Scientists.

To begin with, the critic declares that Mrs. Eddy tells us that "God is not a person, but a principle." Now let us turn to page 116 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" and see what Mrs. Eddy really does say. There we read as follows: "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 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." Such a statement as the foregoing should make it impossible for those who earnestly desire to gain Mrs. Eddy's meaning, to fall into any such misconception as that of which this gentleman has become the victim.

The critic further says, that Mrs. Eddy tells us God is "a principle." What Mrs. Eddy does say is, that God is Principle, which is an altogether different proposition. If our critic will look up the word principle in his dictionary, he will find the following definition (I quote from Webster): "a source or origin; that from which anything proceeds; fundamental substance or energy," etc.; that, when speaking of God as divine Principle, Christian Scientists declare that God is the divine source or origin from which everything proceeds in the divine creation; and I do not think that the critic should have any difficulty in accepting such a view of the one and only God.

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