Article August 4, 1917 Issue

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?

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