Article July 31, 1915 Issue

Although we appreciate the clergyman's expressed desire,...

John Ashcroft

The St. Louis (Mo.) Times

Although we appreciate the clergyman's expressed desire, according to a sermon in a recent issue, to treat Christian Science fairly, it is apparent that his repudiation of the omnipresence of God, and his belief that the teaching of such omnipresence is pernicious and unscriptural, must of necessity deprive him of the point of view from which he could concede the logic of Christian Science. Paul apparently believed in this omnipresence when he taught the Athenians that "in him we live, and move, and have our being." David evidently shared this belief when he wrote so confidently, "Whither shall I go from thy spirit?" The question in the book of Jeremiah, "Do not I fill heaven and earth?" is added corroboration of Immanuel, "God with us," though it be not supported by the testimony of physical sense. Mrs. Eddy is therefore only reiterating these inspired utterances when she declares that God "is all-inclusive, and is reflected by all that is real and eternal and by nothing else." She further adds, "He fills all space, and it is impossible to conceive of such omnipresence and individuality except as infinite Spirit or Mind" (p. 331). It is wide of the mark to say this view of Deity involves increasing vagueness in man's sense of his relation to God; the experience of countless Christian Scientists has been that it intensifies the consciousness of His nearness, and makes Him indeed "a very present help in trouble."

This recognition of the infinity of Mind, Spirit, necessarily involves the rejection of belief in the reality of matter. Starting from this premise, the Christian Scientist logically concludes that all that really is, is spiritual, and that anything that does not measure up to this immaculate standard is not entitled to be conceived of as real. He therefore refuses to acquiesce in the seeming reality of evil, sin, and death, much as the mathematician refuses to accept as real an error in a problem of mathematics. He does not deny the existence of the error as an error, but corrects it with the truth. Human will plays as little part in the practice of Christian Science as it does in mathematics. It is a matter of knowing,—the truth.

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