Article December 12, 1914 Issue

Any one who undertakes to state the teachings of a religion...

Judge Clifford P. Smith

Chesterton (Ind.) Tribune

Any one who undertakes to state the teachings of a religion in which he does not believe, is likely to encounter a difficulty, for the reason that he is apt to lack the appreciation and insight which would enable him to speak of it with accuracy and justice. Twice difficult is the task of one who attempts to sum up a religion other than his own in a few brief sentences.

For these reasons the Lutheran minister whose letter on Christian Science appeared in a recent issue of the Tribune, would better have been content to report what he saw and heard at the Christian Science church which he attended. As a reporter he was a distinct success, but not so as an expositor of Christian Science. For his evident sincerity, however, the thanks of Christian Scientists are hereby tendered. Our brother's comment on matter and disease, as well as his reference to the Christian Science text-book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy, as containing "a sort of spiritualized metaphysics," makes one wonder, however, what kind of metaphysics should be expected in a book which, as he rightly said, is based on the Bible. Will you not allow a Christian Scientist enough space for an explanation?

To some people the world is wholly material; to others (the majority at present) there are two worlds, the one material and the other spiritual, or one world compounded of these opposites. To the Christian Scientist either the universe is wholly spiritual, or he is gaining this perception. As Mrs. Eddy has said (Science and Health, p. 573), "The heavens and earth to one human consciousness, that consciousness which God bestows, are spiritual, while to another, the unillumined human mind, the vision is material." It is well to remember also that all human hope and faith involve a conviction of unseen reality.

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