Article October 31, 1914 Issue

In a recent issue of the Times, Roger S. Tracy says he...

Robert S. Ross

The New York (N. Y.) Times

In a recent issue of the Times, Roger S. Tracy says he would like to know "what Christian Scientists would have done if they had been put in charge of the health of the workers on the Panama canal instead of Colonel Gorgas and his assistants."

Before answering our friend's question, permit me to assure him that Christian Scientists not only do not want to be placed, but cannot in any sense be placed, in charge of the health of others. Real health is dependent upon righteousness, and the primary purpose and aim of Christian Science is to turn thought to divine Principle, God, wherein is all righteousness, and the only secure and sure asylum from evil, sin, and disease. Referring to those who seek this "secret place of the most High," the psalmist sang: "Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day; nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee."

And now for the answer: If a Christian Scientist had been placed in charge of the work to make the canal zone habitable, he would doubtless have done exactly what Colonel Gorgas and his men did, namely, apply commonsense, sanitary engineering methods. Indeed, that is as much as one could do. But it should be borne in mind that it was sanitary engineering and not materia medica, surgery, or serums that brought about improved conditions at Panama. Despite sanitation, however, large numbers of workers died of disease; but the public has not been kept informed on this point. Christian Science teaches that we must beware of making clean merely the outside of the platter.

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