Article August 15, 1914 Issue

"Compensation is no more important to a Christian Scientist...

Judge Clifford P. Smith

Boston (Mass.) Journal

"Compensation is no more important to a Christian Scientist than it is to a preacher or a doctor, but he has the same right to it that they have. For one who is able to heal the sick by prayer, to do so and to receive payment for that service no more tends to commercialize religion than paying salaries to judges tends to commercialize justice. All thinking people ought to be able to see that Christian Science healing without compensation would be just as objectionable to those who oppose it as it would be with compensation. The outcry made about compensation is simply a method of opposition."

With these statements Judge Clifford P. Smith sprang to the defense of New York Christian Scientists who are endeavoring to have the court of appeals of New York reverse the decision of the appellate division of the supreme court in the case of a Christian Science practitioner of New York city, a healer, who had been convicted before Justice Seabury of practising medicine without a license and fined on hundred dollars. Judge Smith continued:—

"In court at the trial were about twenty witnesses who were ready to testify to their healing by Christian Science after the failure of other means, and other witnesses to the same effect were within call. This proof was duly offered. For instance, the record contains the following: 'We offered several witnesses to prove that they have been healed in Christian Science, through the mediation of the defendant as a practitioner of the tenets of the Christian Science church, of ills and sicknesses that had been pronounced incurable by licensed physicians of this city.'

Send a comment to the editors

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit

"Compensation is no more important to a Christian Scientist...

We'd love to hear from you!

Sign up for unlimited access