Article September 25, 1915 Issue

The difference of belief between the idealism of Christian Science...

Thorwald Siegfried—Seattle, Wash.

The North End News

The difference of belief between the idealism of Christian Science and materialism has never been harmonized and never will be for the reason that one is the opposite of the other. As St. Paul phrased it in Galatians, "These are contrary the one to the other," and dualism is simply the endeavor to reconcile the irreconcilable. To illustrate: in astronomy men once believed the earth to be the center of the solar system; now they believe the sun to be. One is the opposite of the other; one is true, the other false, and he would be on a vain quest indeed who should endeavor to explain solar and stellar phenomena on the theory of a dual system involving a shifting center, sometimes having the earth revolve about the sun and again having the sun revolve about the earth. It may have seemed difficult years ago to believe that the earth was not fixed; it may seem difficult now to believe that matter is not eternal. Both become easy in the degree that the truth is proved to human consciousness.

Answering your question whether the works of Christian Science are not due to the power of suggestion, may I call your attention to the fact that evil is suggested among those who believe in suggestion and its power; and that which can do evil ever, can never do good. The mere fact that a particular case is believed to have been healed by the suggestion of the human mind, aided or unaided by a fetish or drug, proves little until it is known that permanent healing can only come from mental and moral regeneration, due to a better acquaintance with God.

Good things come not by suggestion, but by being understood. Who would try to teach numbers by suggestion? A lie, a mistake in mathematics, a wrong course of action in working out a problem, often is suggested to those open to suggestion, but not to one who knows the truth. It follows that in working out the problem of sin, disease, poverty, and death, only the truth, understood, can solve the problem.

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