Article March 14, 1914 Issue

Nothing could be farther from the fact than that the...

Frank Bell—Wilkes-Barre, Pa.

The Record

Nothing could be farther from the fact than that the healing in Christian Science resembles any of the phases of belief in faith-cure or the efficacy of incantations. Christian Science claims no supernatural authority or action; its results are due to the operation of simple and natural law. It is not "mind over matter" in the ordinary sense, but it is good over evil in the broadest and most comprehensive and effective sense. Like mathematics, it cannot be learned by reading a book, nor can its precepts or rules be understood by any who refuse to try to put them into practice. Necessarily, then, it cannot be disproved by a mere theorizer. Its critics always shoot wide of the mark because they aim not at actual Christian Science, but at their own mistaken conception of it; and their criticism appeals to those only who, like themselves, have not given it a trial.

If our friend has really persuaded himself to believe Christian Science teaches that mortals do not sin, suffer, and die; that there is no incarnation, no Holy Spirit, and that Christianity is a failure, he is warranted in assuming the Bible and Christian Science to be irreconcilable. In view, however, of the well-established fact that Christian Scientists are dili gent Bible students and that there is more reading from the Bible in Christian Science church services than in those of his own or any other denomination, it is a fair presumption that either his facts or his logic are faulty. Christian Scientists will be especially surprised to learn that they have been denying "the healing power of the gospel," for if there be one thing above all else they have supposed they were affirming and demonstrating, it is that.

Christian Science does not deny that God is Person in a spiritual sense. Christian Scientists, however, are not required to profess belief in a manlike personal deity sitting on a great throne in the sky and dealing with his children in a manner that would be intolerable in a human parent, rewarding some and punishing others for doing things he is supposed to have made them capable of doing. Christian Scientists are taught to question the accuracy of any description of God that does not conform to the highest standards of justice, mercy, and love, to say nothing of intelligence.

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