Article March 4, 1916 Issue

When a minister preaches the gospel in which he believes,...

Judge Clifford P. Smith—Knoxville, Tenn.

The Journal and Tribune

When a minister preaches the gospel in which he believes, he is likely to know what he is talking about, and he may have something to say that is worth hearing; but when a preacher undertakes to expound and criticize the religious views of other people, he is liable to betray his unfitness for such a task and to illustrate the dangers of unrighteous judgment. These observations are pertinent to the sermon by a minister of the United Brethren church which you reported. What he said about Christian Science showed an utter lack of preparation for comment on that subject.

Christian Science does not teach that you and I are illusions. It teaches us to know ourselves even as we are known by our Maker. The main question for each of us to decide is, whether his view of self and life should be subordinate or superior to the so-called facts of mortal existence. Christian Science adopts the answer to this question offered by St. Paul: "Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed." How, in what way, can this be done? St. Paul answered this question also at the same time: "By the renewing of your mind." Human conditions are improved and human experience transformed "by the renewing of your mind;" that is, as false mentality is displaced by true thought. And Mrs. Eddy has truly said, "Thus it is that the real, ideal man appears in proportion as the false and material disappears" (Science and Health, p. 69).

So long as a man believes he has a headache he will have one; but let him become conscious of the spiritual facts of being, and as a result he will not cease to have a head, but he will cease to have a headache. Furthermore, the cure thus effected in one instance will help to set him free from liability to headaches. If our critic has been a sufferer from this form of disorder, he would better study and apply Christian Science for the purpose of gaining his freedom. More than one minister who has caviled at this teaching has learned to honor it and to share its benefits.

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