Article May 12, 1917 Issue

While Christian Science most emphatically teaches obedience...

W. Stuart Booth

Boulder (Col.) Camera

While Christian Science most emphatically teaches obedience to the Master's explicit command to heal the sick, voiced in the gospels, it does not omit the injunction regarding baptism, as was inferentially stated recently by a prominent clergyman in your city. The superficial and materialistic tendency of ritualistic worship received many strong rebukes from Christ Jesus, as when he spoke of the Pharisees making clean "the outside of the cup and the platter," while they were still sinful in thought.

Inasmuch as all sin is thought before it is acted, it is plain that baptism unto repentance must be a purification or spiritualization of thought, which is of course not dependent upon any material rite or symbolical ceremony. Hence, on page 35 of Science and Health Mrs. Eddy expresses the spiritual idea of baptism in the words, "Our baptism is a purification from all error." She amplifies this somewhat on page 9 of "The People's Idea of God," where we read: "Christian Science has one faith, one Lord, one baptism; and this faith builds on Spirit, not matter; and this baptism is the purification of mind,—not an ablution of the body, but tears of repentance, an overflowing love, washing away the motives for sin; yea, it is love leaving self for God."

It appears somewhat inconsistent for a clergyman to carp at a large body of Christian who are humbly endeavoring to "obey the whole gospel as Christ ordained it," simply because their outward form of worship does not coincide with his scholastic training and belief, when the master Christian said that "the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth." At another time he gave the unerring standard by which a man's Christianity may be measured, in the terse statement, "By their fruits ye shall know them." Christian Scientists are willing to be judged by this test, for through the application of the Bible teachings as explained by Christian Science their lives have been made happier, healthier, and holier; they have found that true spiritual baptism brings healing as well as moral and spiritual regeneration.

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