Article August 5, 1916 Issue

In a brief extract from a sermon which was reported in a...

F. Elmo Robinson—Portland, Ore.

The Oregonian

In a brief extract from a sermon which was reported in a recent issue of The Oregonian, it would seem that the clergyman was attacking that system of religious thought which denies the reality of sin, sickness, and death; and further, that he was attempting to show that such denial is contrary to Jesus' teachings. As Christian Science is the only system of religious thought since the days of primitive Christianity that denies the reality of sin, sickness, and death, it is quite evident that the reverend gentleman refers to Christian Science, although he avoids mentioning it by name.

Now Christian Scientists have no quarrel with those who differ from them as to the method of overcoming sin and disease. They have no harsh word for clergyman or physicians, nor do they deny to any the right to accept and practise that system which seems to them to offer the greatest promise of relief from physical and moral disorder. "The Christian Scientist," to use the words of Mrs. Eddy (Science and Health, p. 450), "has enlisted to lessen evil, disease, and death." In order to accomplish this important end Christian Scientists are preaching the gospel and healing the sick in the way which, as they have demonstrated to their own satisfaction, is bringing forth the best results. They deplore persistent misrepresentations of their motives, teachings, and practice, not for their own sakes alone, but for the sake of those who may be temporarily misguided by these criticisms.

As an indispensable step toward the understanding of what is meant in Christian Science by the denial of sin, disease, and death, it is important for one to have clearly in mind the sense in which Mrs. Eddy uses the words reality and unreality. That which God has caused, that which God sustains, and hence that which is eternal and indestructible, Mrs. Eddy has designated as real. That which has no origin in God, that which is unsupported by the divine Mind, and therefore is temporary and destructible,—an experience of the carnal or mortal mind,—she has designated as unreal. In Christian Science it is not denied that all the varying phases of human discord seem real to erring mortal sense, neither are these manifestations ignored; but the fact that they are daily being eliminated from human experience by the application of the teachings of Christian Science, proves that they are errors, not facts, which are to be corrected by an understanding of the truth.

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