Article January 6, 1917 Issue

A short time ago representatives of fifteen churches met...

Judge Clifford P. Smith

Indianapolis (Ind.) Star

A short time ago representatives of fifteen churches met at Alliance, Ohio, and listened to an address against Christian Science by a doctor of divinity who had been brought from a distant city for what was announced as "a joint movement against the inroads of Christian Science in this community." The term "inroads" alluded, of course, to the fact that some of the members of these fifteen churches had found a more satisfying religion in Christian Science.

The address delivered on this occasion was reported by a person appointed to furnish it to the periodicals of the various denominations represented at this meeting, and it has now appeared in several of them, including one in which the official or regular report was changed to suit the editor's hostility to Christian Science. Like all addresses of its kind, the one thus delivered and reported recalls what the Jews at Rome said to Paul when he offered to tell them of Christianity: "As concerning this sect, we know that everywhere it is spoken against." And again, like most of its kind, the address in question recalls the fact that the witnesses against Jesus spoke volubly, "but their witness agreed not together." Indeed this particular address instanced in a typical manner the utterly mistaken and contradictory nature of the opposition which Christian Science has been obliged to overcome.

The gist of the address delivered on this occasion was summed up in two statements. In one of them the speaker declared: "Christian Science opposes the Bible in denying the reality of matter, the reality of sin in the sense in which the Bible speaks of it, the existence of Satan, the personality of God, the personality of our Redeemer, Jesus Christ, the reality of prayer, and especially does it oppose the Bible in its insane interpretation of its texts." On the other hand, the same speaker said: "There are many things the church might learn from Christian Science, including greater loyalty to the Bible, more faithful testimony to the power and grace of Jesus Christ, the value and privilege of prayer, and last but not least, the potency of a holy life."

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