Article August 29, 1914 Issue

Your correspondent, Mr.—,among his many erroneous...

John W. Doorly

Wakefield (England) Express

Your correspondent, Mr.—,among his many erroneous impressions of Christian Science, seems to be laboring under this, that Christian Science teaching is for the purpose of enabling its followers to have a very good time in the flesh. Nothing could be more erroneous than this view, since the teaching of Christian Science clearly emphasizes that both pain and pleasure in matter are equally erroneous, and that if you believe in the one you render yourself subject to the other. Christian Science does teach, however, that in God's presence is "fulness of joy;" at His right hand "there are pleasures for evermore." It teaches that true being, or spiritual being, is the consciousness of eternal harmony, in which no law of the flesh can operate, but only the divine law of Life, Truth, and Love, delivering men from both the ills and the dangerous pleasures of matter, and giving them true joy and peace.

The critic's intimation that Christian Scientists desire ease in matter, is only another proof that the gentleman either has not read Mrs. Eddy's book, from which he claimed to quote, although incorrectly, or that he has taken no trouble to understand what he read, since in numerous instances the author points out that this is in no way the desire of Christian Scientists or the object of Christian Science. He is very happy because he has found to his own satisfaction that Christian Scientists do not believe that "this is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent." From his point of view it is quite true. Christian Scientists do not believe that a mere human opinion respecting the person of Christ Jesus as the Saviour of the world, will save them from evil, but they do know that to understand, utilize, and appreciate the teachings of Christ Jesus which reveal God's law, or the spiritual law, will undoubtedly save them from the only hell there is, that is, the belief in the reality of what Paul terms "the law of sin and death."

Perhaps the critic will accept Jesus Christ's own definition of what it means to believe on him, and of how a believer on him can be recognized, when he declared, "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also." Judged by this standard, Jesus Christ's own standard, Christian Science has nothing to fear today, since it stands preeminent among religious bodies in its insistence that the works which were done by Jesus Christ, and his followers for three hundred years after, were accomplished through the correct, scientific, and fixed understanding of God's law, and that these same works are just as natural and easy today as they were then, in proportion to one's understanding of this divine law. That a critic whose religious belief does not include this living, vital faith, should object to this teaching, even as the rabbis objected nineteen hundred years ago, is not surprising; but this in no way disproves the fact that Christian Science is revealing to mankind that "lo, I am with you alway," in the very way that this Christ himself decided was the proper and only way, and that is, through demonstration.

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