Article January 17, 1914 Issue

In a recent issue of the Gazette, Mr. Russell, in an attack...

Frederick Dixon

Weston-super-Mare (England) Gazette

In a recent issue of the Gazette, Mr. Russell, in an attack upon theosophy and some other phases of teaching, describes Christian Science as "heathenish." I am sure, therefore, you will permit me to show how utterly mistaken such a description is. The worst of religious controversialists is that they often find it necessary to support their own case by an attack on their neighbors. In a way this is understandable; it is so much easier to abuse somebody else than to demonstrate the truth of what you believe yourself. In the present instance, the critic finds it very easy to describe Christian Science as "heathenish." He forgets, however, that it is necessary to do something more than to proclaim yourself a Christian in order to be one. The Founder of the Christian religion took care of that. He understood all about profession and the ease with which profession may be made. He spoke of it quite clearly and without any hesitation as making "clean the outside of the cup and of the platter," and he went on to insist that men must give some better proof of their Christianity than a mere assertion of it. His command to his followers was not merely to "preach the gospel," but to "heal the sick," and he defined Christianity in a phrase the meaning of which it is impossible to whittle away, when he said that those who believed on him would be able to do the works he did. The offense of Christian Science to the critic is founded on this very command. Mrs. Eddy perceived quite clearly the meaning of the words in the epistle of James, that "faith without works is dead," and she insisted that those works should be the works demanded by Jesus himself, that is to say, works of healing.

The healing of Christian Science is no mere attempt to get a man's body well; it is based on another great saying of Jesus, "Whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and walk?" The ordinary philosophic thinker has long admitted the interdependence of mind and body, but it was reserved for Mrs. Eddy to insist on the full meaning of the gospel, that all sickness is the result of wrong thinking, and that all wrong thinking is sin. The physical condition of the body is nothing but a reflection of the human mind, and exactly as the human mind is permeated by a belief in matter or an understanding of Spirit, it reflects sickness or health, sin or holiness. The way to cure sickness, therefore, is the way to cure sin, and it is done in Christian Science by permitting that Mind to be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, even though our critic chooses to call it "heathenish."

The world has got into the habit of regarding sin as a sort of local belief; that is to say, that what is a legitimate expression of materiality in Constantinople may be a criminal offense in London. It is quite true that polygamy is a sin, but it is equally true that a monogamist may be as much of a sinner as a polygamist. In plain English, this is what Jesus obviously pointed out when he explained that sin is thought before it is enacted; in other words, that sin is mental. The sin of omission is not necessarily less a sin than the sin of commission. The man who becomes sick as a result of obvious vice has committed a sin of commission, but a man may equally well become sick by omitting to believe that there is no power but God, and consequently no absolute reality in evil. Sin, then, speaking absolutely, is the surrender to a belief that there is any real power but God. If this were recognized by the human race, then the effort to let that Mind be in you "which was also in Christ Jesus," would produce an understanding of spiritual life which would banish the material beliefs of sorrow and sickness and sin so completely from the human consciousness that men would be able to begin to appreciate the depth of that tremendous saying, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect."

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