Article May 15, 1915 Issue

In view of the wide-spread and earnest study of the Bible...

F. Elmo Robinson—Portland, Ore.

The Oregon Journal

In view of the wide-spread and earnest study of the Bible which has resulted from the publication of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy, it has no doubt seemed strange to many of your readers that an attempt should be made, as in the case of the reverend gentleman of Vancouver, to prove that Science and Health and the Bible disagree. The reports of this gentleman's sermons, appearing in the Journal, contain so many erroneous statements concerning Christian Science that I am asking the courtesy of space in which to reply. While Science and Health does not agree with all of the conclusions of scholastic theology, it is in thorough accord with the spirit and purpose of primitive Christianity. It has illumined the Bible and proved it true, thus saving it from the destructive higher criticism. It is not offering humanity a doctrinal platform for acceptance, but a present salvation from sin and disease, and hundreds of thousands of grateful beneficiaries bear witness to the fulfilment of its promise.

The reason our brother seems to find disagreement between the Bible and Science and Health is due to his failure to compare "spiritual things with spiritual." It is impossible to harmonize spiritual things with material science and human philosophy. In the case of Jairus' daughter, for example, material sense-testimony and material science declared that she was dead, but the Master said, "The maid is not dead." When Mrs. Eddy in Science and Health denies sin, disease, and death, she does it in precisely the same sense as Jesus and his apostles did. She denies that they are God-produced, and teaches that therefore we should deny them a place in our thinking. Christian Science does not teach us to ignore material conditions, but in the words of Science and Health (p. 254), "to abandon so fast as practical the material, and to work out the spiritual which determines the outward and actual." Christian Scientists accept the entire New Testament narrative of the earthly career of Christ Jesus, including the virgin birth, his wondrous healing and redemptive works, his crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension.

In concluding one of his sermons, our brother offered five "suggestions," to which I shall briefly reply. The answer to the first question—"If she founds her system on the teachings of the Master and the lives of the prophets and apostles, how does it come that they conceded the reality of the things she denies?"—is, that the Master, the prophets, and the apostles did not concede the reality of the things she denies. Mrs. Eddy denies sin as Paul teaches us to deny it when he says, "Denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world." Mrs. Eddy, in accord with Bible teaching, maintains that sin, disease, and death will be eliminated in the degree that we let that Mind be in us "which was also in Christ Jesus."

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