Article January 15, 1916 Issue

It is regrettable to notice that an evangelist has stepped...

Joseph H. Mendinhall

Wilmington (Del.) News

It is regrettable to notice that an evangelist has stepped aside from his work of "glorifying God" to criticize a religion with which, judging from his words as quoted, he is unacquainted.

The most practical answer to his criticism is to be found in Mrs. Eddy's message on the occasion of the dedication of the Christian Science church edifice in Concord, N. H., July 17, 1904, as follows: "I am asked, 'Is there a hell?' Yes, there is a hell for all who persist in breaking the Golden Rule or in disobeying the commandments of God. Physical science has sometimes argued that the internal fires of our earth will eventually consume this planet. Christian Science shows that hidden unpunished sin is this internal fire,—even the fire of a guilty conscience, waking to a true sense of itself, and burning in torture until the sinner is consumed,—his sins destroyed. This may take millions of cycles, but of the time no man knoweth. The advanced psychist knows that this hell is mental, not material, and that the Christian has no part in it. Only the makers of hell burn in their fire. Concealed crimes, the wrongs done to others, are millstones hung around the necks of the wicked. Christ Jesus paid our debt and set us free by enabling us to pay it; for which we are still his debtors, washing the Wayshower's feet with tears of joy" (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 160).

The Wayshower, Christ Jesus, proved the power of divine Love to heal sin, sickness, and death, and through the understanding of divine Love as taught in Christian Science many have been reclaimed from the gutter, and many have learned of God's protecting care and have thus been lifted from the dregs of sin. The reformed lives of those who have left prisons, reformed through Christian Science, speak for the efficiency of his power. As Christian Scientists we are grateful that we are able to follow the footsteps of the Master sufficiently well to be instrumental in bringing out enough of the truth which he taught to heal, even if it "takes a long time," as the critic states; but as a matter of fact many cases are instantaneously healed. In all cases the recipient of the healing is blessed by being brought closer to God, into better at-one-ment with God, good.

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