Article March 24, 1917 Issue

If our friendly critic is correctly reported, there are some...

Lloyd B. Coate

The Alliance (Ohio) Review and Leader

If our friendly critic is correctly reported, there are some things said deserving of commendation, and some things that need correction. He is reported as saying that "there were 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." We appreciate this statement, together with his admission that Christian Science heals the sick. This fact is now quite generally conceded.

While Christian Scientists are most grateful for the physical healing of disease, our friend is wrong if he thinks they give more emphasis to physical healing than to spiritual. That people are healed of physical disease is not the only reason for the growth of the Christian Science church. In most instances the greater joy that comes to Christian Scientists is due to the fact that the teachings of Science and Health satisfy the deepest spiritual needs of men. In the light of Christian Science the Bible is more precious than before this truth was made known. A teaching that leads its followers to have greater confidence in God and the promises of Christ Jesus cannot be opposed to Christianity.

Instead of Christian Science being opposed to and contrary to the Bible, it is saving the Bible from mutilation through the unbelief of those who believe in matter and a material creation as the real, rather than in Spirit and a spiritual creation as the only reality of existence. Fairness and justice would give Mrs. Eddy the same right to her view of the Scriptures as the dean of the Moody Bible Institute of Chicago would ask for himself. Through Mrs. Eddy's understanding of the Scriptures the sick are healed and the sinner is reformed as Jesus promised. Shall Mrs. Eddy's explanation of Scripture be called unreasonable when it heals the sick, while a material interpretation does not? Surely the one nearest right is the one whose fruit is most in accord with what the great Master said would follow those who believe and understand his words.

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