It is historically true that during the first three centuries...

Peter V. Ross

Portersville (Cal.) Recorder

It is historically true that during the first three centuries not only the apostles, but Christians generally, healed the sick as Jesus healed them, that is, by prayer and spiritual means only. Christian Science is simply bringing to light and applying to human ills the Principle whereby Jesus and the early Christians wrought their works of healing, and is proving that the Principle has lost none of its efficacy with the lapse of centuries, but can be invoked at any time by any person in proportion to his understanding of and consecration to the Master's teachings.

Our clerical critic declares that Christian Science is not "a whole gospel." Yet this is precisely what Christian Science is, inasmuch as it obeys not only the Master's injunction to preach the gospel but also his command to heal the sick. If Christian Science differentiated healing from preaching and practised only the latter, it might justly be regarded as "a partial gospel;" but such is not the case, as every one knows. The language of Mrs. Eddy on page 142 of Science and Health is most apposite in this connection: "Anciently the followers of Christ, or Truth, measured Christianity by its power over sickness, sin, and death; but modern religions generally omit all but one of these powers,—the power over sin. We must seek the undivided garment, the whole Christ, as our first proof of Christianity, for Christ, Truth, alone can furnish us with absolute evidence."

The clergyman seems to regard Christian Science as a partial gospel because it relies on prayer alone and makes no use of medicine. Can he point to any case where Jesus resorted to medicine or mingled it with prayer? Can he refer to any therapeutic system, based either upon medicine alone or upon a mixture of medicine and prayer, that has made any approach to infallibility or that gives any assurance of successfully coping with human suffering? Then why should he argue that Christian Scientists ought to abandon healing through prayer alone, especially when he knows, or at least might know upon the most cursory investigation, that Christian Science is effecting cures where the composite method which he advocates has proved a failure?

The clerical critic objects that in the Christian Science churches there is no personal preaching, but simply reading from the Bible and Science and Health. The people who make up the congregation, however, raise no objection to this form of service; it holds their attention and lifts their thought to that point where sickness and sensualism begin to fade from consciousness and lose their reality. Healing of both disease and sin is continually going on at Christian Science services. This is a practical refutation of any argument in favor of personal preaching. In fact, as Mrs. Eddy says, "the error of the ages is preaching without practice" (Science and Health, p. 241).

The clergyman contends vigorously for the reality of matter and for the reliability of the physical senses. He says that if matter is not real, he does not see how we can know anything about God. A most remarkable statement this, for any one who believes the Bible doctrine that God is incorporeal Spirit, Mind, Life, Love, and moreover is all-presence and all-power, will wonder where there is any space for matter to fill or any function for it to perform. He will have no difficulty in accepting the Christian Science teaching that matter is not real substance, but rather a false concept of real substance, held and believed in by the human mind as though it were actual. Every one must admit that we do not see things as they are. The five corporeal senses are the glass through which we see darkly. By reliance on them the human mind takes a distorted or perverted view of all things, and this perversion or distortion constitutes matter. The belief that matter is real substance shuts out the true idea of Deity, and is the cause of all sin, sickness, and sorrow.

It is very true, as the clergyman intimates, that Christian Science regards disease as a state of thought or consciousness, not a physical fact, and hence that cures are accomplished through a correction of thought and a change in consciousness. This transformation of mind is brought about by application of the truth that disease, however real it may seem to human sense, has no actual existence or presence, but is an illusory belief only. Any one who will apply himself to the study of Christian Science may prove the truth of these statements.

Send a comment to the editors

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit