In a synopsis of a sermon delivered by the Rev. Mr.—...

Ora S. Drewry—Cincinnati, Ohio

Commercial Tribune

In a synopsis of a sermon delivered by the Rev. Mr.—that gentleman refers kindly to the Christian Scientist, but misapprehends Christian Science when he implies that it teaches that mind transforms and transfigures matter until matter becomes the mere tool to do the bidding of the soul of man.

Christian Science defines God as Spirit; and if man is the image and likeness of God, as the Scriptures aver, man must be spiritual and not material, in spite of what the human sense may say about him. Christian Science teaches that Spirit is Mind, that this divine Mind is necessarily perfect, and knows only perfection; that man, as the image of this Mind, is a divine idea, and therefore a perfect idea. It also teaches that the material man and the material universe are but the illusions of a so-called mind ignorant of God, and not the truth about God and His creation, just as the rising sun and the stars "that climb the heavens and go" are not the truth about astronomical phenomena.

The Bible declares through the exalted thought of John that God made all that was made, "and without him was not any thing made that was made." The infinite creative Spirit could not be expressed in matter or material man, else Spirit would cease to be infinite. As some understanding is gained of God and His spiritual man, the belief in matter, or as St. Paul calls it, "the old man," begins to be "put off," and the spiritual man to be brought out. The Christian Scientist, then, does not transfigure matter and use it as a tool, but denies its reality and struggles to shake off its bondage, and this is the real cross he takes up to follow the Master, in obedience to the great Teacher's command.

Science is the exact, specific, formulated knowledge of a given subject. Christian Science is the exact, formulated knowledge of God and His spiritual universe, and the operation of spiritual law as exemplified in the Christianity taught and demonstrated by Jesus. Recognizing God as the only cause, it is knowledge founded upon an unvarying Principle and governed by immutable law. The unfoldment in consciousness of the scientific knowledge of God is the understanding of the truth Jesus taught, and which he said was for all humanity to know and practise. "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also," said the Master. This believing, or understanding, is the realization of the allness of Spirit, and the consequent unreality of matter, and gives dominion over all material conditions. It is not "thought at high pressure," as the reverend gentleman affirms, that enables a Christian Scientist to overcome pain, but rather his scientific knowledge of the truth that Jesus taught and which he declared would make men free,—free from all material beliefs.

It was Jesus' knowledge of the truth that enabled him to heal the sick, and the same Mind that was in Christ Jesus will enable his followers to do the works that he did. Just in proportion as the Christian Scientist is able to understand the unreality of material phenomena and to recognize and claim his birthright as the child of God, is he able to overcome the ills of the flesh, including pain. Not "thought at high pressure" has enabled the Christians all down the centuries to overcome the fiery furnace, the boiling oil, the hungry lions, and innumerable other material ills, but their understanding of God, and their conscious unity with Him. Christian Scientists have a demonstrably scientific religion, just so far as they understand, and they are proving their Christianity by their works in the overcoming of sin and sickness and sorrow.

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