Article January 8, 1916 Issue

The comparison, by our critic, of Christian Science with...

W. D. Kilpatrick

Marquette (Mich.) Chronicle

The comparison, by our critic, of Christian Science with such doctrines as Gnosticism, theosophy, eastern mysticism, occultism, Buddhism, and the like, reveals a misconception of Christian Science which seems to characterize most of its would-be traducers. If the gentleman had gained ever so little insight into the true teachings of Christian Science he would hardly have dared venture this comparison. His statements, like many other stock criticisms of Christian Science, are most strikingly in agreement with the same charges hurled at Jesus and the early Christian church by the priesthood of those times. They accused Jesus of casting out sin and sickness by Beelzebub (hypnotism, occultism, and the like), because they did not understand the spiritual, scientific Principle by which his mighty works were done.

An attempt to discredit or disprove Christian Science by the Bible is as futile as would be an attempt to discredit the principle of mathematics by the use of an arithmetic. The warp and woof of Christian Science are the spiritual teachings and interpretations of Scripture, and there is no divergence at any point between Christian Science and a correct and demonstrable interpretation of the Scriptures. It is not denied that Christian Science differs at many points from the man-made creeds and the scholastic theology of the centuries, but therein lies the secret of its marvelous growth as a potent agency against sin and sickness. Jesus did not make any distinction, in pointing out to us our duty as Christians, between sin and sickness and the means whereby these conditions are to be overcome. His command so often issued, not only to his students but to all who believe in him, to cast out sin, was always accompanied and generally preceded by the command to heal the sick. He healed both sin and sickness, not through the understanding that these conditions are God sent or God created, but through the understanding of just the opposite, namely, that they are not of God, and therefore have no authority or power over God's creation.

Christian Science does not ignore sin or the necessity of overcoming and conquering sin in its every phase, as our critic would have us believe. Christian Science recognizes not only the necessity of overcoming sinful conditions, but it has in a measure succeeded in arousing mankind from its lethargy in sin and its belief in the necessity, as God given, of certain sinful conditions, to the understanding of man as free-born and not as a slave to sin or a child of chance and change. Christian Science has undoubtedly done more toward the destruction of sin and the Christianization of mankind in the short span of its existence than any other one contemporary agency. Christian Science is a return to the teachings of primitive Christianity; to the teachings of Christ Jesus and his disciples, and is in a measure, and in gradually increasing certainty, proving its divine authority. No man ever has or ever will overcome sin and sickness through the palpably erroneous belief that God creates or sends these conditions.

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