Article June 30, 1917 Issue

An evangelist at the Methodist church is reported to...

Carl E. Herring

Geneva (Neb.) Signal

An evangelist at the Methodist church is reported to have said, "Who ever heard Christian Science preach repentance?" The answer is, Everybody who ever heard anything about Christian Science. Of course Christian Scientists do not revive the superstitions of the dark ages or resort to evangelistic methods, but it can hardly be said they are not reforming the lives of men and women and bringing peace where before was turmoil. If by repentance is meant "to cease to love and practise sin," then Christian Science is full of the call to repentance.

The old idea of repentance was for one to confess to a lot of crimes he never committed, carefully avoiding the thing that was keeping him out of the kingdom of heaven. The fact is that Christian Science teachings differ from other religions in placing emphasis upon the necessity of ceasing to practise sin.

Mrs. Eddy puts this strongly on page 19 of Science and Health, where she says, "If the sinner continues to pray and repent, sin and be sorry, he has little part in the atonement." And again on page 291 she says, "The suppositions that sin is pardoned while unforsaken, that happiness can be genuine in the midst of sin, that the so-called death of the body frees from sin, and that God's pardon is aught but the destruction of sin,—these are grave mistakes."

Send a comment to the editors

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit

An evangelist at the Methodist church is reported to...

We'd love to hear from you!

Sign up for unlimited access