Article December 2, 1916 Issue

A correspondent recently attempted to connect Christian Science...

Thorwald Siegfried

Wenatchee (Wash.) World

A correspondent recently attempted to connect Christian Science with Buddhism. Judging from the tone of the letter, he had satisfied himself that Christian Science and Buddhism have much in common, but I am certain that no person who has made the teaching of Christian Science his own sufficiently to heal sin and sickness by purely spiritual means will agree with him. This and similar charges have been made against Christian Science by persons of varying degrees of apparent hostility.

It is plain from the letter that your correspondent believes in Christ Jesus. It is strange, then, that he should be at such pains to identify Christian Science with occult religions, for there is nothing occult or mysterious about the teachings of Christ Jesus or of Christian Science. Indeed, had he noticed the exact coincidence between the teaching of Christian Science and that of Christ Jesus, as well as the renewal of the spiritual healing of sin and sickness as in the Saviour's time, your correspondent would have spared himself the trouble of making fine spun connections between Christian Science and anything else than Christianity itself.

Refusing Christian Scientists the name "Christian" for reasons already referred to, the critic avers that the term "Science" is a misnomer, because Mrs. Eddy taught that matter is not real. Evidently he has a correct view of at least one of the fundamentals of Christian Science teaching—fundamental in that the reality of self-existent matter cannot be logically reconciled with the omnipresence of God, Spirit; and the reality of matter as a product of Spirit cannot be harmonized with the infinite wisdom and goodness of God, of whom John spoke as "love." Jesus had no partiality for the belief in matter, but said, "The flesh profiteth nothing." Even material scientists can tell us nothing about the ultimate nature of matter; their hypotheses are only statements of their beliefs. What is really known about matter may be stated in terms of negation,—it does not think, love, or act; that is, it is not like God, the source of all real being.

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