Article February 14, 1914 Issue

I have read the letter referring to Christian Science in a...

Algernon Hervey-Bathurst

Weymouth (England) Telegram

I have read the letter referring to Christian Science in a recent issue. "M.A. (Cantab.)," who signs the letter, has very kindly expressed his desire to draw the attention of Christian Scientists to certain statements in the New Testament with which, I will venture to say, every Christian Scientist is familiar. May I be permitted to say a word respecting his somewhat unusual interpretation of at least one of the passages referred to?

The meaning of the word apostle is "one sent forth," or "a messenger," and the signs the critic refers to, in Corinthians, are surely the signs demanded of every apostle or messenger professing to accept and practise the teaching of Jesus the Christ; for I fail to see by what possible method of reasoning it can be shown that these same signs were to be given as evidence of the truth of the teaching of the Founder of Christianity only for a certain period of time or by certain privileged persons. Nowhere in the New Testament is such teaching to be discovered, nor is it possible to find any confirmation of the remarkable statement of the critic that "the law of evidence took the place of miracles." The miracles were the logical and inevitable results of the understanding of the law of God, the law which Jesus came to fulfil, and in doing which he could not fail to expose the true nature of sin, sickness, and discord. The so-called miracles were therefore the proofs of the truth Jesus taught—the "signs following."

It does not require a very great effort to realize that truth is unalterable, and that therefore what was true nineteen hundred years ago is just as true today. If, then, a correct understanding of the teaching of Christ Jesus resulted in the healing of the sick and the destruction of sin a few centuries ago, a correct understanding of that same teaching will inevitably produce the same results today. Now, Christian Science is not a "new religion" by any means. It is the reiteration of what Jesus and his disciples taught and practised so successfully; it is no invention, but it is the reaffirmation of that truth to which the Master referred, declaring that a knowledge of it would make men free. A religion or system which enables its adherents to accept and practise the teaching of Jesus the Christ, can scarcely be called anything but Christian, and what better term could be used than science to designate that which proves its faith by its works in a way which has never been done since the first centuries of the Christian era?

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