Article April 7, 1917 Issue

A clergyman declares that the process of the healing work...

Avery Coonley—Savanna, Ill.

The Times-Republican

A clergyman declares that the process of the healing work which Jesus insisted was proof that he came from God, is identical with pagan healing, such as that current in India. Christian Science denies this emphatically, declaring, on the contrary, that the processes are more nearly antipodal, one being superstitious in character and the other scientific. Jesus said, "The Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works," and no healing which is not based upon divine power has the same Principle as that underlying Christian healing.

The pastor contends that the passage in the fifth chapter of James, "Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: and the prayer of faith shall save the sick," means that the prayer was insufficient without the therapeutic or healing agency supplied by the oil. A consideration of the facts would probably lead most people to conclude that the anointing was a form or rite prevalent in those days, particularly as in all the healing mentioned in the Bible, including countless cases healed by Jesus and his disciples, there are but two or three in which any material thing whatever was done. If the oil and not the prayer or spiritual accompaniment were indeed the essential therapeutic agency, the doctors should give up their study of poisons, vaccines, germs, and disease, and direct their research to oil. Christian Scientists, however, believe that all the healing narrated in the Bible was brought about spiritually, also that healing in the same way is possible today; and they are proving their theories daily in accordance with Jesus' promise, "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also."

The minister admits the possibility of mental healing caused by suggestion, which is but the puny operation of that which St. Paul has termed "the carnal mind." The point at which his faith appears to stop is that God could be the source of healing. Rather than concede this, he attributes the entire healing work which the Bible chronicles, including the raising of the dead, to suggestion. Here again Christian Scientists differ from him absolutely. They find the carnal mind a wholly impossible source of true healing, and can attribute results so great and so beneficent to nothing less than God, "who healeth all thy diseases." A source less than omnipresent and omniscient would neither inspire their faith nor appeal to their reason.

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