Article April 21, 1917 Issue

There exists a tendency to compare Christian Science with...

Carl E. Herring—Aurora, Neb.

The Hamilton County Register

There exists a tendency to compare Christian Science with various phases of mind cures which may properly be included under the generic term of mental healing, and occasionally, from a superficial study, to regard them as being identical. Nothing could be farther from the fact; for, while conceding to the claimants of mental therapeutics every right to hold their own belief, it must be understood that there is a broader gulf between Christian Science and will-power than there is between Christian Science and the attenuated forms of medical practice. Christian Science stands squarely on the foundation of the allness of God, the supremacy of Spirit, God, and utterly denies the reality of evil, or that it forms any part of God's creation.

There are not two forces in the world contending for mastery,—good and evil,—and any system of healing which is based on the idea that evil is a force to be reckoned with as a reality, finds itself confronted with an entanglement which may be summarized as follows: If evil is a reality, God must have created it, or else God is not omnipotent; if God created evil, it is sacrilegious to oppose it; if we admit a creator other than God, we break the first commandment. This notion of a titanic struggle forever persisting between God and Satan as distinct entities is the creation of Milton and the theologians, not of Jesus and the apostles.

Mental healing does not refer the whole matter back to God, but substitutes will-power for the power of Almighty God. It then joins forces with what it conceives to be the better side, but always with dependence upon the human instead of the divine. When it does reach out after God, it still clutches the material remedies for safety, with the result that it fails to find God, or believes in a God of limited power. Christian Science is a sincere effort to reestablish the religion of Jesus of Nazareth, as practised by him and by the early Christian church. It asserts no claim to support from the public and excites no fears to win converts, but it does demand its right to stand unadulterated for what it claims, and freely grants to every other sect or school of thought the same privilege.

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There exists a tendency to compare Christian Science with...

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