Article May 29, 1915 Issue

My attention has been drawn to your report of a sermon...

Judge Clifford P. Smith

The Kingston (Jamaica) Chronicle

My attention has been drawn to your report of a sermon delivered at Philadelphia in which the speaker jeered at Christian Science. Since the healing of Naaman, who was afflicted with leprosy, as related in the fifth chapter of II Kings, was contrasted in the sermon with Christian Science healing, I trust you will permit me to reply accordingly.

It is to be observed that Naaman expected Elisha to use a ceremony or rite as the means of healing, and he was not content with less than an outward act which typified his cleansing. So also the minister who spoke against Christian Science at Philadelphia, appealed to the popularity of material habits of thought by deriding the possibility of healing by "absent treatment." The method of Christian Science healing is, indeed, wholly spiritual and invisible. It requires neither physical act nor personal contact. It invokes solely the power of God, and acts only through divine law. But this does not mean that it is ineffectual; and for Christians these facts should be consistent with the presence, power, and activity of the healing agent which Christ Jesus defined as "the finger of God."

I am able to say, moreover, that the question whether Christian Science is equal to the cure of leprosy can be answered by reference to particular cases. As long ago as 1891, G. W. Barrett, M.D., then residing at Kansas City, Mo., was cured of this disorder by Christian Science. He was himself a practising physician of thirty years' experience, and his diagnosis was confirmed by a consultation of physicians. Accounts of his healing were published in the daily papers, and the case afterward attracted renewed attention by reason of a reference to it before a legislative committee. More recently N. C. Bishop of Ianthe, Mo., and Mrs. E. A. Land of Carmi, III., have been cured of leprosy by Christian Science treatment.

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