Article January 17, 1914 Issue

It would seem that those in authority at St. John's parish...

John W. Harwood—Blackpool, England

Gazette-News

It would seem that those in authority at St. John's parish church are greatly concerned about Christian Science. First the vicar, then his curate, according to the reports in your paper, utters an emphatic condemnation of it. The incentive to do this is evidently produced by great fear. The vicar's inference that Christian Scientists do not value, but despise the body, only reveals his ignorance of the subject. Christian Science shows that sick thoughts make sick bodies, and that right thoughts make healthy bodies. Right thinking is prayer; "The ... prayer of a righteous man [right-thinking man] availeth much." The implication of the critic that Christian Science teaches that bodily diseases are imaginary, is not warranted, as all be seen from the following quotation from Science and Health: "Sickness is neither imaginary nor unreal,—that is, to the frightened, false sense of the patient. Sickness is more than fancy; it is solid conviction. It is therefore to be dealt with through right apprehension of the truth of being" (p. 460).

The statement of the Rev. A. B. Harris that no knowledge of any kind could come except through the senses, is a very surprising one for a minister of the gospel to make. Does any knowledge of God, Spirit, come through the physical senses? Can we see, hear, smell, taste, or touch Spirit or spiritual things? Jesus showed clearly that this could not be done. He said to those who could not understand his teaching, "Having eyes, see ye not? and having ears, hear ye not?" Paul says, "We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal." The false evidence of the physical senses did not deceive Jesus into believing that one born blind, deaf, and dumb was helpless. Of one born blind he said, "Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him." This showed that Jesus knew something more than his physical senses testified to, for his knowledge gave sight to what to all appearance was a blind man. He knew that man was made in the image and likeness of God, Spirit, and that he must therefore be spiritual. His senses must also be spiritual, hence indestructible, eternal. Mrs. Eddy says in Science and Health: "Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour saw God's own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick. Thus Jesus taught that the kingdom of God is intact, universal, and that man is pure and holy" (p. 476).

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