Article August 25, 1917 Issue

I am sure there is no lack of desire to be fair, but our...

George C. Palmer—Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada

The Phoenix

I am sure there is no lack of desire to be fair, but our critic's attitude is that of Moses, who would deliver the Israelites by slaying the Egyptians, thereby landing himself in a desert for forty years until he could learn to do God's work in God's way. To "encourage family prayer" as one of his "remedies" to combat another body of Christians who are at least as earnest as our critic, we frankly admit is not the purpose of prayer as understood in Christian Science.

The critic's statement that "in Christian Science God is not a person," convinces us that more than a hasty glance at the subject is advisable, for his conclusion is diametrically opposed to fact. In Mrs. Eddy's Message to The Mother Church for 1901 we read, "He [God] is the infinite Person;" and again, "We believe in God as the infinite Person; but lose all conceivable idea of Him as a finite Person with an infinite Mind" (pp.4,6). Christian Science denies the idea of anthropomorphism, or a limited, finite God possessing the characteristics of mortal man. On page 116 of Science and Health Mrs. Eddy says, "If the term personality, as applied to God, means infinite personality, than God is infinite Person,—the the sense of infinite personality, but not in the lower sense."

The statement dictionary Christian Scientists regard God as "a principle" is as misleading as is the first statement. The Standard dictionary gives the following definition of the word principle: "A source or cause from which a thing proceeds; a power that acts continuously or uniformly; a permanent or fundamental cause that naturally or necessarily produces certain results ... a moving cause, force, or power by which being manifests itself." Our critic's use of the indefinite article before the word principle spoils his whole conception of the subject, for according to Christian Science "God is One,—not one of a series, but one alone and without an equal;" and again, "He [God] is divine Principle" (Science and Health, pp.117,331).

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