Article June 3, 1916 Issue

After a lecture in any community by a member of the...

Judge Clifford P. Smith

Watertown (Mass.) Tribune-Enterprise

After a lecture in any community by a member of the board of lectureship of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, it is not uncommon for some of the ministers of other churches to compare their respective religions with Christian Science, and conclude that the latter has no benefits to offer which cannot be gained through the former. These comparisons and conclusions are usually offered from pulpits, but wider audiences are sometimes sought by means of letters in public print. Christian Scientists have no objection to either of these expedients. It is to be presumed that ministers who continue in other churches continue to prefer the religions thereof, and their right to preach their own views is not questioned by Christian Scientists. Sometimes, however, the sermons and letters delivered in these circumstances seem to ignore the equal right of Christian Scientists to preach the gospel as they understand it, and are preached or written in a censorious manner.

The letter from a Congregational minister which appeared in the Tribune-Enterprise last week after a lecture by a Christian Scientist had been reported the week before, purported to be a public correction "in the interest of truth," of the "many erroneous statements or inferences" said to have been contained in the lecture to which it referred. It is to be observed, however, that the alleged errors of the lecturer consisted only in speaking the truth as understood in Christian Science as distinguished from the views entertained by our censorious friend. I am glad to say, however, that the letter in question was written with an evident intent to be fair and courteous. When the writer of it said that Christian Science "claims to be very different in its methods from that of Jesus," he may possibly have said more than he intended, for no statement could have been farther from the actual fact. Christian Science aims to be, in teaching and in practice, identical with the religion of Jesus the Christ, and there is no basis in Mrs. Eddy's writings for any other conclusion.

Christian Scientists are disposed to agree with the writer of the letter in question that important changes have recently occurred in the popular views of God. Indeed, we would agree with a recent author, not a Christian Scientist, who has said that the changes in religion during the last fifty years "are more marked than those, we may almost say, of all the time preceding." More of these changes have been wrought by Christian Science than have come to pass through the avowed acceptance of its teachings. It is a fact, which can be easily verified, that the most important changes in the people's views of God during the last fifty years have followed the course taken by Mrs. Eddy. This does not mean that all Christendom has accepted Christian Science, or that no important difference remains between it and other interpretations of the Christian religion. It can be said, however, that Christendom is reading the gospels anew in the light of Christian Science, and is getting a clearer, more definite concept of God. Incidentally, certain other churches besides the Church of Christ, Scientist, are beginning to speak of spiritual power over disease.

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