Article March 13, 1915 Issue

I am glad to comply with the request of the Rev. Mr.—...

Charles W. J. Tennant—England

Herts Advertiser and St. Albans Times

I am glad to comply with the request of the Rev. Mr.—and answer his questions from the Christian Science point of view. Christian Science replies to the first question, "Does the Christian Scientist say that he has no sin?" by maintaining that man in the image and likeness of God is sinless. This is in absolute conformity with the Bible teaching, "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God." This, of course, refers to man in the absolute; but relatively speaking Christian Science certainly does not teach that a mortal does not sin.

Now with regard to the meaning of sin, the word in the Hebrew and Greek means to err, to miss the mark, not to shoot straight. If God is infinite, as the Scriptures declare, to believe in anything else is to miss the mark, and so, in the broadest sense, to sin. The only possible way, therefore, to stop sinning is to see that it is a mistake and cease from doing so. Mrs. Eddy says, "The way to escape the misery of sin is to cease sinning" (Science and Health, p. 327). If one has made a mistake in mathematics, a discordant result follows, and the mistake can be corrected only by a knowledge of the basic law of mathematics. So will a further knowledge of God, divine Principle, Life, Truth, and Love, correct the mistake of sinning.

"Where does the Christian Scientist's mortal mind come from?" In this question our critic asks for an explanation of the origin of evil. I do not think he or anybody else will ever give a satisfactory reply as to the origin of evil, for it has none. Our Master stated this very clearly when he said that the devil, evil, "abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him." Has that which has no truth in it a real origin? Christian Scientists are engaged in the demonstration of God's allness, instead of wasting their energies in the hopeless task of trying to discover the origin of His suppositional opposite.

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