Article August 8, 1914 Issue

The Rev. Mr.—is reported to have said regarding...

G. W. Allan

The Toronto (Canada) News

The Rev. Mr.—is reported to have said regarding evil and imperfection, that "God does tolerate these things and God does originate these things, because they are here." The mission of Jesus Christ was set forth in Jesus' words, "For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me," and his doing of God's will is epitomized in his reply to John's disciples: "Go and show John again those things which ye do hear and see: The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them." He also referred to the deformed woman as one "whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years." It hardly seems necessary, in view of these facts, to say that God did not cause these ills which Jesus removed, as he says, in doing "the will of him that sent me." We place the critic's statement and this record of Jesus' words and works in juxtaposition, and leave it to your readers to determine their agreement.

The reverend gentleman is further reported as having said: "I have known them [Christian Scientists] to be dying with their faith in Christian Science. It is marvelous that they should do so when they cannot be cured." Well may he wonder, if he believes that Christian Science is but another of the many methods of healing. Mrs. Eddy, however, says in Science and Health (p. 150): "The mission of Christian Science now, as in the time of its earlier demonstration, is not primarily one of physical healing. Now, as then, signs and wonders are wrought in the metaphysical healing of physical disease; but these signs are only to demonstrate its divine origin,—to attest the reality of the higher mission of the Christ-power to take away the sins of the world."

The Christian Scientist understands God to be "universal, eternal, divine Love, which changeth not and causeth no evil, disease, nor death" (Science and Health, p. 140). The Christian Scientist's faith is therefore based on the presence, power, and love of God, and we would welcome from this clergyman, or from any other source, information of a better foundation for the faith of the man who is "dying and cannot be cured."

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