Article April 4, 1914 Issue

Christian Science does not teach that sickness and sin are...

Frank C. Barrett

Portland (Maine) Press

Christian Science does not teach that sickness and sin are only imaginary. The sinner is convinced that there is something in sin, while the sick man is convinced that he is sick, and neither the one nor the other can be helped until he is convinced to the contrary. The sinner is shown that there is nothing in sin, while the sick find that their diseases are not something, but the lack of something; that is, the spiritual realization of Truth which makes free from error.

Jesus said of a woman, that Satan had bound her, "lo, these eighteen years." He did not say that God had afflicted her, but Satan, whom he declared to be a liar. Now it is clear that the bond of a liar is a false claim. According to Jesus, therefore, the woman was bound, not by God, but by her ignorance of Him, and Jesus' understanding of God enabled him to do his Father's will and thereby release the woman from her physical infirmity. She was shown that Satan was a deceiver and the bond false. Thus did the Master make her sickness unreal to her. All physicians are engaged in doing just that,—attempting to make sickness unreal to people; and if they do not succeed, their treatment is a failure. Would our critic have us make sickness real and let the sick continue in bondage to this unreal master? We prefer to follow Christ and the teachings of the Bible.

Christian Science is not "faith-cure." Faith may heal sickness in some instances, but those who have been healed do not know how to repeat the cures in other cases. Jesus, on the other hand, never failed in any case, and his followers as late as the third century even raised the dead. They not only had faith, but their faith was backed up by a knowledge of spiritual truth. Jesus' understanding was so exact as to amount to absolute Science. Mrs. Eddy says, "Jesus of Nazareth was the most scientific man that ever trod the globe" (Science and Health, p. 313). In Christian Science, results are obtained just in proportion to the student's understanding and application of Jesus' teaching, and not by mere blind faith.

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