Article December 11, 1915 Issue

Objection is made by our critic because Mrs. Eddy was...

Ezra W. Palmer—Pueblo, Col.

The Star-Journal,

Objection is made by our critic because Mrs. Eddy was the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science. Through study of the Bible, through prayer, reason, and revelation, the truths of Christian Science were made clear to her. In a time of need it became clearly evident to her that current religious doctrines were unavailing to do the works the Master commanded his followers to do. She therefore retired from society and studied the Bible until the divine mode of healing the sick and sinning employed by Jesus, the prophets, and the apostles, was revealed to her. This she gave to the world under the name of Christian Science. That her interpretation of the Bible is correct is proved by the results which have followed.

Mrs. Eddy made no attempt to confine her writings and teachings within the bounds of scholastic and traditional theology. To do so would have defeated her life-purpose, which was to bring to this world the healing power of Christ Jesus which for centuries had been explained away and ignored by this same scholastic theology. However, to assume that the teachings of Christian Science are at complete variance with great religious thinkers of all ages is a mistake, since all genuine seekers after God have seen more or less clearly the omnipotence of God and what it means, even if they have not grasped it sufficiently to make it available in healing the sick through spiritual understanding, as Mrs. Eddy has done for the modern world.

"The man in the street" would hardly expect a Christian minister to argue that a religion was wrong because it does not conform to "the accepted philosophies of this and past ages." And yet this critic gravely advances this proposition against Christian Science. Seriously, now, would this critic expect a religion based on the Bible to be based anything else but the Bible or to conform to any teaching but that of the Bible? Christian Science is based on the Bible. If the philosophies of this and other ages interpret and support the teachings and proof of Jesus and the apostles, well and good; if not, this lack is merely an evidence philosophies based on human reason do not attain to that spiritual insight which alone gives true and lasting views of God and His universe. In Science and Health (p. 126) Mrs. Eddy says: "I have set forth Christian Science and its application to the treatment of disease I have discovered them. I have demonstrated through Mind the effects of Truth on the health, longevity, and morals of men; and I have found nothing in ancient or in modern systems on which to found my own, except the teachings and demonstrations of our great Master and the lives of prophets and apostles. The Bible has been my only authority."

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