Article April 28, 1917 Issue

It has been considered worth reporting that an evangelist...

Judge Clifford P. Smith

The Boston (Mass.) Traveler

It has been considered worth reporting that an evangelist said that a Christian Scientist would only do some talking to a man in search of a satisfying gospel "and leave the poor devil right where he was." Such comment proves too much; it flares backward. The fact is that Christian Science is assailed by its clerical opponents mainly for the reason that it has furnished a satisfying gospel to numerous members of other churches.

The facts here mentioned have been remarked by more than a few observers. For instances, a Congregational minister of Mansfield, Ohio, was reported in the Mansfield News of Jan. 10, 1916, as saying: "Our excellent friends, the Christian Scientists, are frequently made the target of unnecessary attack. Personally I think it is a shame and little short of a great sin that they were driven outside of all the churches. There ought to have been in the beginning enough of toleration and sympathy and intelligence to conserve what was good in the new movement and keep it within the church. First and last the church has lost a good deal by its intolerant attitude. It has condemned offhand a number of things which it ought to have tried to appreciate with sympathy and understand."

Again, the rector of the Episcopal Church at Union, N. J., was reported by the Union Inquirer of April 9, 1916, as saying: "I am friendly to Christian Science for what we commonly call a pragmatic reason. If a thing works, if, to use the vernacular, 'it delivers the goods,' then it is worthy of our commendation, and of course I am familiar with many cases where Christian Science has worked, where it has 'delivered the goods.' Among my acquaintances there are several whose lives have been transformed by Christian Science. Other churches did not succeed in doing anything for them. Christian Science did succeed. So all honor to it. Of course the situation at times is reversed. Christian Science may fail with some individual where the Episcopal church or the Jewish church would succeed. God in His wisdom chooses many different mediums through which to work."

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