Article March 17, 1917 Issue

"Canonical writings"

ELMA WARWICK WILMARTH

We are quite likely to attach the most value to those things which we have had to make some effort to gain. A large majority of people claiming to be Christians take the Bible for granted, just as they do the air and the sunshine. Most of us cannot remember a home in which there was not at least one copy of the Book of books; but how it came into existence perhaps mattered little to us. Some of us read or studied the Bible from a sense of duty, some from habit, some because it stood for the best in certain kinds of literature, and others because it was a light to their feet and an inspiration. When, however, its sacred pages were made radiant in the light thrown on them by Science and Health, then indeed its value increased, until by much study it became "our sufficient guide to eternal Life" (Science and Health, p. 497). We now realize that, as Ruskin says, "no book is worth anything which is not worth much; nor is it serviceable until it has been read and reread, and loved and loved again."

Just as we accepted the Bible without question, so we may lazily accept the various names which have been given to it. Do we stop to consider just what is meant by the term "canonical writings" in the explanatory note of The Christian Science Quarterly? To the Bible student it means exactly what the familiar term "authorized" means in speaking of the Christian Science literature. The word canon in classical Greek is properly a straight rod. As the early Christian fathers used the word in its wides sense to mean "the rule of the church," so the canon of Scriptures may be described as the collection of books which form the original and authoritative written rule of the faith and practice of the Christian church. The uncanonical books were described simply as "those without," or those "uncanonized." The apocryphal books, which were supposed to occupy an intermediate position, were called "books read." Popular belief assigned to Ezra and the Great Synagogue the task of collecting and promulgating the Scriptures as part of their work in organizing the Jewish church. Doubts have been thrown on this belief, but it is in every way consistent with the history of Judaism. The Old Testament as a whole appeared after the time of the Maccabean persecution. The complete canon of the New Testament, as commonly received at present, was ratified at the third Council of Carthage 397 a.d.

No book offered to us as "just as good as the Bible" would be tolerated; and since its treasures have been unlocked for us by Mrs. Eddy in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," should we not, as one of our chief obligations to its author, likewise zealously guard our text-book against substitution? In Section 6 of Article VIII of the Manual every member of The Mother Church is admonished not "to forget nor to neglect his duty to God, to his Leader, and to mankind." Loyal students of Christian Science have been criticized and called narrow-minded because they follow their Leader's instructions and read only the authorized literature of Christian Science, together with the Bible, in studying the Science of Christianity, through which they are enabled to repeat the healing works of Christ Jesus and his early followers. Since, however, Mrs. Eddy has given the world this new-old religion, is she not entitled to our loyal obedience if we take the name of Christian Scientists?

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