Article June 13, 1914 Issue

If the Rev. Mr.—really believes Christian Science to...

Paul Stark Seeley

Oregon City (Ore.) Courier

If the Rev. Mr.—really believes Christian Science to be as noxious as his letter in a recent issue would indicate, and is at the same time informed with what eagerness and gratitude its teachings are being accepted by rapidly increasing numbers of his fellow men in the four corners of the earth, he is deserving of commiseration for the mental anguish which he must endure. Perchance these people do not all possess the critic's oracular sagacity in matters religious, a loss which, it might be inferred, his article is perhaps intended to supply. In this his latest and somewhat wordy fusillade against Christian Science, your contributor so far forgets the decorum of his calling as to slur, by truthless innuendo, a woman whose purity and Christianly devotion to the cause of human betterment has been marked by lasting tributes of highest regard from many able pens.

When in 1910 Mrs. Eddy passed away from earthly associations, an encomium of highest regard for her life, her character, and her lasting acheivements went up from the English-speaking press throughout the entire world. In her home city, among those who knew her best, the city council referred to her as "an honored and a devoted friend, ... whose motto was 'to injure no man, but to bless all mankind.' " If the reverend critic cannot agree with the religion founded by Mrs. Eddy, he would, we venture to say, win more respect for his own highroad to salvation were he to refrain from assailing the honest beliefs of his fellows and curb his inclination to belittle the high motives and goodness of a woman whose life-work he cannot yet understand, but which has nevertheless brought healing and happiness to multitudes, and that, too, while modern science has been prattling with its intellectual dogmas and theorizing as to how it could divide the atom into electrons and the electrons into something else.

In a tone of caustic glee the critic tells of a child who had Christian Science treatment and died. If he would be fair, let him take a peep behind the curtain of his prejudice. Let him consult the health office records of city or state, and he will learn, if perhaps the fact has escaped his attention, that people are dying by thousands who have sought health through the ministrations of orthodox medical practice. Indeed, so many have died under that treatment that the custom is now well established, and few have thought it strange, even while Christendom has been saying with its lips that God is Love. Had materia medica been meeting the need of mankind for life and health, Christian Science never would have gained its present place as a world-wide movement, for its appeal has not been in its words, but in its works. As God becomes better understood, and man's scientific unity with Him becomes worked out in life practice (see Science and Health, p. 202), Christian Scientists know that every failure due to mortal ignorance will disappear, and mankind will be able to demonstrate the absolute truth that God is omnipresent and supreme. That the absolutely infallible demonstration of Christian Science has been attained in this age, no Christian Scientist will contend; that Christian Science is healing where material systems have failed, and that its failures are less frequent, is beyond cavil.

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