Article December 9, 1916 Issue

The comments on Christian Science by a doctor of divinity...

Judge Clifford P. Smith

The Boston (Mass.) Herald

The comments on Christian Science by a doctor of divinity now transiently in our city should have been discontinued long ago, for they have no point when the actual teachings of this religion are intelligently considered. Nearly everything he said in relation to this subject was given such point as it had by ignoring the distinction made by Christian Science between the real man of God's creating and the counterfeit of man, which includes sin, disease, and death. This distinction is plainly made throughout the authorized literature of Christian Science, and it is easily understood as well as easily followed by any fair-minded reader.

Moreover, the distinction just stated is not peculiar to Christian Science. It is to be found in the Bible, particularly in the teachings of Christ Jesus, Paul, and John. Here is where Mrs. Eddy found it; and other writers, either with or without her aid, have also noticed it. For instance, Prof. Lucius Hopkins Miller of Princeton University said in his recent book entitled "Our Knowledge of Christ," "In a real sense man is a child of God, and in another sense, equally real, he must become a child of God." In a sense man does not sin, sicken, or die, but is coexistent with God as His image or reflection. In another sense man needs to be saved from these evils and from all evil. Thus Jesus declared, speaking of God, "He is not a God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto him." Yet the Master also said, "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." Although Paul said, speaking of God, "In him we live, and move, and have our being," yet he also spoke of an "old man," including "mortality," to be "put off."

John made the same distinction emphatically. In this writings the reality of man's being and the human need of achieving it are plainly declared. For instance, in the first epistle of John we read, "Beloved, now are we the sons of God;" also, "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God." Yet the same writer said in the same letter, "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." Such apparent contradictions disappear when account is taken of the Scriptural distinction between God's man and what is called a mortal. Likewise the efforts of the reverend gentleman to array the Bible against Christian Science were supported only by his own failure to read or heed its actual teachings.

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