Article July 22, 1916 Issue

A clergyman criticizes Christian Science because it teaches...

Robert S. Ross

North Tonawanda (N. Y.) News

A clergyman criticizes Christian Science because it teaches that inasmuch as God, Spirit, is All-in-all, matter, Spirit's opposite, is necessarily unreal. The critic may not know that physical scientists now admit that matter in its last analysis is indefinable. Indeed, only a short time ago Mr. Balfour declared that scientists are explaining matter by explaining it away. Centuries ago the understanding of the truth about God and man enabled Jesus to see the unreality of matter. He set at naught every known material law, commanding those who understood his teachings to do likewise. Knowing that spiritual truth is the only reality, Jesus said, "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away."

The critic also criticizes Christian Science because it teaches that sin and sickness are unreal in the sense that God is not their author. The best possible proof that God is not their author is indicated by the fact that Jesus destroyed these errors. He said, "I came . . . not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me." If sin and disease were of God they would be indestructible and eternal. It would therefore have been impossible for Jesus to destroy them. Furthermore, in trying to destroy them he would have been acting contrary to the will of God.

Let the critic attempt to cure disease by so-called "mental healing," and he will readily find how inadequate finite mental methods are to meet the needs of suffering humanity. On the other hand, a demonstrable understanding of Christian Science would enable him to meet every disease as its master. The claim that Christian Science is untrue because its adherents do not unfailingly demonstrate its Principle, is not sound argument. On page 461 of Science and Health Mrs. Eddy writes: "Christian Science must be accepted at this period by induction. We admit the whole, because a part is proved and that part illustrates and proves the entire Principle." From the third century until the advent of Christian Science, history does not show that healing as Jesus taught it was understood in its Principle. When Christian Scientists understand the Science of Christ as fully as Jesus understood it, they will be infallible practitioners, but not until then.

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