Article August 29, 1914 Issue

In a recent issue Dr.—has referred to a man who called...

Charles E. Jarvis

San Diego (Cal.) Sun

In a recent issue Dr.—has referred to a man who called himself a Christian Scientist, and who in a spirit of bravado took arsenic with disastrous results. Allow me to say that such a performance has no warrant or justification either in the Bible or anywhere in Mrs. Eddy's writings, and therefore Christian Science should not have been connected with the affair.

Christian Science is the restoration of primitive Christianity, the same as that practised by Jesus and his apostles. It does not require the performance of a spectacular act in order to prove its teachings. "The effects of Christian Science," Mrs. Eddy tells us on page 323 of Science and Health, "are not so much seen as felt. It is the 'still, small voice' of Truth uttering itself."

When Jesus had finished his forty days' fast in the wilderness, he was tempted of the devil to perform feats which to human sense are impossible. Although he realized his oneness with his heavenly Father, and that no harm could befall him, he refused to yield to the tempter. On a later occasion, however, when the need arose, he fed a multitude with five small loaves of bread and two fishes. Paul, through the exercise of his spiritual understanding, saved himself from any ill effects resulting from the bite of a viper, but he had not solicited the occasion to show the power of God. Just so it is with the earnest student of Christian Science. When he understands that he is a child of God and has the loving protection of an omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, and compassionate Father, he proves in case of need the truth of God's promise to him "that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High": "There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling." But he does not claim the victory for himself, nor does he seek the housetop to proclaim it for his own self-justification.

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