Article September 11, 1915 Issue

The man who desires to help his fallen fellow man to...

Robert S. Ross—Auburn, N. Y.

The Advertiser-Journal

The man who desires to help his fallen fellow man to become a useful member of society, does not tell him his case is hopeless and assure him that he is on the direct road to perdition. He who would lend a helping hand knows that the unfortunate needs the kind of encouragement that will enable him to throw off the evil that is besetting him and to choose good as his goal in life. With this method of helping the downtrodden the so-called evangelist, Mr.—,will readily agree. Nevertheless, when the same method is applied to the man who is in bondage to the evil called sickness, he ruthlessly attacks Christian Scientists for their presumptuousness. He approves of the Christianity that helps the fallen to be free from sin, but disapproves of the Christianity that helps the sick to get well. In other words, he believes that God is omnipotent on some occasions and impotent on others, despite the assurances of the psalmist, who sang of Him "who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases."

The Christianity of Jesus was a religion of works. Mere lip-service meant nothing to him. He healed sin and sickness by one and the same process, and reminded his followers throughout all time that the ability to repeat his works would be the only acceptable proof of discipleship. "He that believeth on me," Jesus said, "the works that I do shall he do also;" and at another time he said, "Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, . . . cast out devils; freely ye have received, freely give." If our critic attacks Christian Scientists for healing the sick, it is to be assumed that he would attack Jesus for doing the same thing, were the Master on earth today, inasmuch as Christian Science is but a restatement of the Christteaching of the first century.

In classing Christian Science with occultism, our critic merely adopts the methods of the Pharisees, who accused Jesus of healing through Beelzebub. If hypnotism seems at times temporarily to relieve the sick, it certainly does not help the patient morally. On page 206 of Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy writes: "Will-power is capable of all evil. It can never heal the sick, for it is the prayer of the unrighteous; while the exercise of the sentiments—hope, faith, love—is the prayer of the righteous. This prayer, governed by Science instead of the senses, heals the sick." Christian Science has never entered the experience of a single individual without making that individual better physically and morally.

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