Article November 4, 1916 Issue

The address in which Christian Science was said to be a...

Judge Clifford P. Smith

Springfield (Mass.) Republican

The address in which Christian Science was said to be a failure, reported by a correspondent, refuted itself. If Christian Science were a failure it would not arouse opposition; sectarian opposition is significant proof of its success. Moreover, the persons who have studied Christian Science and put it into daily practice are the persons who know whether it is a success or a failure. And these persons, with few or no exceptions, are satisfied with it. For one who has approached this teaching only as an opponent, to get up in a public place and call it a failure is fatuous.

In this instance the speaker added that Christian Science is based on Hinduism and that it makes God a mere abstraction. Every one who has read the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy, in an unbiased manner, knows that it is based on the Hebrew and Christian Scripture and that it is related, by history and content, only to Judaism and original Christianity. To Christian Scientists this religion does not teach that God is an abstraction. If it gives this impression to opponents, they would better study its teachings more intelligently. To Christian Scientists the terms which their religion uses to define God are concrete, vital, deific. Moreover, they are provable in daily experience.

Furthermore, Christian Science does not rely alone on words to define the nature of Deity. Thus in Mrs. Eddy's Message to The Mother Church for 1901, she said (p. 1): "As Christian Scientists you seek to define God to your own consciousness by feeling and applying the nature and practical possibilities of divine Love: to gain the absolute and supreme certainty that Christianity is now what Christ Jesus taught and demonstrated—health, holiness, immortality."

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