Article December 4, 1915 Issue

There is nothing mysterious or obscure in regard to Christian Science,...

Carl E. Herring

Weeping Water (Neb.) Republican

There is nothing mysterious or obscure in regard to Christian Science, nor is there the slightest desire on the part of Scientists to do other than proclaim exactly what they believe, leaving the public to accept or reject as it sees fit. That the Bible has both a literal and a spiritual meaning is accepted as a basic proposition by the church fathers of every denomination. There is no controversy about this, and Christian Science can not and does not lay claim to any originality in promulgating this idea. A purely literal interpretation plunges the believer into all sorts of abominations and contradictions and gives rise to the stigma cast upon the churches,—that one can prove anything from the Bible.

The point of divergence comes in trying to determine what is the spiritual interpretation and not in agreeing that the spiritual interpretation should be found. Christian Science comes in conflict with orthodoxy because it throws down the gauntlet and refuses to temporize with any interpretation of the Bible which is not spiritual. Whether or not the spiritual meaning of the Bible is presented in the teachings of Christian Science, is for each one to determine after a careful study; but whether one agrees or not, it does not militate against the fact that Christian Science accepts the Bible as its only authority and guide to eternal life.

To illustrate: In the first chapter of Genesis we find it recorded that "God created man in his own image," and "God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good." In the second chapter of Genesis we find that the "Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground," and took one of his ribs and made a woman. Then follows the record of man's sin. Evidently two accounts of creation and of man are contained in the first and second chapters of Genesis. Christian Science prefers to accept the first as the spiritually scientific account, and the second as the human, mortal mind account.

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