A report is given of a sermon delivered by the Vicar of...

H. Wallace Smith—London, England

Chiswick Times

A report is given of a sermon delivered by the Vicar of St. Michael's in which statements are made which require some explanation and correction.

The vicar's assertion that in denying the existence of mater Mrs. Eddy's teaching is in some way confused reveals on his part a misunderstanding of the subject of Christian Science. Mrs. Eddy makes the following statement on page 223 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures": "God is infinite omnipresent Spirit. If Spirit is all and is everywhere, what and where is matter?" Since God is infinite Spirit, omnipotent, omniactive, omniscient, and omnipresent, it must be true that the record of the creation in the first chapter of Genesis refers to the spiritual creation and not to the material at all. God, Spirit, did not create matter, for the simple reason that he could not create an element the exact opposite of Himself. Light does not produce darkness, for God is light. Love does not beget hate, for God is Love. Good cannot create evil, for God is good. Truth does not make error, for God is Truth. Life cannot cause death, for God is Life. Like begets like, for have we not read that the same fountain cannot send forth sweet water and bitter? Mrs. Eddy teaches that matter is both temporal and unreal, and cannot therefore possess any real existence, as it is the opposite of Spirit, God. The material phenomena or appearances to which the five physical senses bear testimony are neither real nor eternal.

Mrs. Eddy has neither written a creed nor condemned the Christian religion, as the vicar is reported to have said. What she has done is to restore to a weary world "primitive Christianity and its lost element of healing" (Manual, p. 17), and a host of people who have suffered are now full of unbounded gratitude to her for the rediscovery of the Science of the Christ, because it has been the means of effectually releasing and saving them from all kinds of woe, disease, and misery, and of completely restoring them to health and happiness.

It is not surprising that the reverend critic has failed to understand several passages in Mrs. Eddy's textbook, because so long as anyone persists in believing in the reality of matter, error, and evil, he will find it impossible to understand what is meant by the reality of Spirit, Truth, and good. The mortal or carnal mind alone formed the five material senses, which are channels for error and afford all the apparent evidence there is of matter, evil, and disease Writing about evil, Mrs. Eddy declares on page 71 of Science and Health: "Evil has no reality. It is neither person, place, nor thing, but is simply a belief, an illusion of material sense."

The only proof the vicar or anyone else can have that he really understands Christian Science at all is by the demonstration of its teachings in healing the sick and the sinning, because it is quite impossible to understand this Science in any other way than by demonstrating its truth. The religion of Christian Science is identical with that of Jesus the Christ, the Founder of Christianity, who gave forth the dual command to all his followers to "preach the gospel" and to "heal the sick," and promised that certain signs would follow them that believed on him, and these same signs are following the demonstration of Christian Science.

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