Article January 8, 1916 Issue

In answer to a correspondent I would like to say that...

Samuel Greenwood

The Hedley (British Columbia) Gazette

In answer to a correspondent I would like to say that Christian Scientists have no quarrel with physicians. As a class we honor them highly for their splendid devotion to their work of relieving human suffering. My reference to the obituary column was not intended as a reflection against them, but to show that materia medica is not sufficiently infallible to be considered superior to the healing method of Jesus, since thousands are passing out under its care every day.

Your second correspondent evidently wishes to be fair to Christian Science, and for this I thank him. For his information I would say that Christian Science uses the word real as relating always to God and His creation. What God did not make is not regarded as real, in that it is not permanent and eternal but is capable of destruction. The Scripture reads, "All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made." Evil of any kind is not considered as part of God's creation, hence in the absolute sense it is not real.

Christian Science does not ignore the presence of sin in human experience any more than it ignores the presence of sickness, since, as I have before pointed out, Christian Science is here for the sole purpose of redeeming mankind from just such conditions. The great difference between Christian Science and other denominations in their attitude toward evil is this: that the latter are striving to overcome evil as a reality, while Christian Science is combating it as a false belief. Their purpose is the same but the methods are vastly different. The seeming reality of evil may be illustrated by hallucinations produced by mesmerism, in which the subject is made to believe that certain suggested conditions are real, and these seem tangible to him while in that state but disappear when a normal mentality is resumed.

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