Article July 17, 1915 Issue

There appeared in your esteemed paper recently, a news...

Charles F. Williams

The Selma (Ala.) Journal

There appeared in your esteemed paper recently, a news item telling of two criminals, condemned to be hanged, who had embraced the teachings of Christian Science, they having studied the literature for a year. Since a statement made by one of the men involves the teaching of Christian Science in regard to man and the hereafter, I will ask for space in which to make an explanation, and to make a few other remarks in connection with prison work from the Christian Science point of view.

In reply to the question "What sins?" Mrs. Eddy says in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 61): "According to the Word, man is the image and likeness of God. Does God's essential likeness sin, or dangle at the end of a rope? If not, what does? A culprit, a sinner,—anything but a man! Then, what is a sinner? A mortal; but man is immortal." Christian Science teaches mortals what man really is, and this teaching lifts them above the sod, and gives them a clearer, purer, more spiritual idea of life. It also teaches that Soul is God, Spirit, never in nor of matter, that man is the reflection of Soul; and this is according to the Scripture, which says that man was created in the image and likeness of God. Soul has never been seen to go into or come out of matter.

According to human belief, under certain conditions the mind leaves the body, and this process is called death. In Ecclesiastes we read, "In the place where the tree falleth, there it shall be;" and in Science and Health (p. 291) Mrs. Eddy says that "as death findeth mortal man, so shall he be after death, until probation and growth shall effect the needed change." A man is neither better nor worse because of dying. Probation and progression are necessary to effect a change for the better. A realization of the fact that man and the universe are spiritual, together with a constant turning away from the erroneous notions that man is sick, sinning, and dying,—a conception wholly material and unreal,—is a surer way of attaining salvation.

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