Article May 30, 1914 Issue

It seems strange that a minister of the gospel should malign...

Thomas F. Watson

Fresno (Cal.) Herald

It seems strange that a minister of the gospel should malign and misrepresent Christian Science, which has healed thousands of sin, sickness, and sorrow, and turned them to God, when he should be preaching the gospel and healing the sick in accordance with the command of the Master. The Bible says, "Judge not, that ye be not judged;" and if our friend the minister has anything better than Christian Science to offer the world, he will find people hungry and waiting for it; nor is it necessary to tear down another's religion to build up his own. That is not Christianity. The Master said, "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."

Christian Science does not ignore sin, but teaches how it may be overcome. Science and Health (p. 404) states: "Healing the sick and reforming the sinner are one and the same thing in Christian Science. Both cures require the same method and are inseparable in Truth. Hatred, envy, dishonesty, fear, and so forth, make a man sick, and neither material medicine nor Mind can help him permanently, even in body, unless it makes him better mentally, and so delivers him from his destroyers." The Bible tells us that God is Love, that God is Spirit, also that He is omnipotent and omnipresent, and this is just what Christian Science reiterates. The definition of God, as given in Science and Health (p. 587), is this: "The great I am; the all-knowing, all-seeing, all-acting, all-wise, all-loving, and eternal; Principle; Mind; Soul; Spirit; Life; Truth; Love; all substance; intelligence."

Our clerical critic states, "The church does not assume the function of medicine or the practice of medicine; it fulfils the Word of God by trying to bring into effective cooperation the physician and the patient;" but the fact remains, that the Master commanded his followers to preach the gospel and heal the sick; he also instructed them to preach to all nations,—teaching them to observe all things whatsoever he had commanded them,—and this command was never revoked. The early Christians for three hundred years after the Christian era were all healers. Jesus said in the gospel of John: "For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak." God's law never changes, for it is "the same yesterday, and today, and forever."

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