Article February 2, 1918 Issue

A speaker at the "tabernacle" is reported as saying that...

Samuel Greenwood

Victoria (B. C.) Times

A speaker at the "tabernacle" is reported as saying that if the devil were taken out of Christian Science it would wither and perish. This statement would unquestionably indicate, to any well-informed person, a lamentable unacquaintance, at least, with Christian Science. It might be stated here that many clergymen of different denominations, whose record and standing are quite as good as the present speaker's, have publicly approved of the influence of Christian Science as a factor for good. It is an ascertainable fact, and one that is widely admitted, that Christian Scientists are, as a class, as earnestly devoted to the cause of Christianity, in all that the term implies, as are the members of other churches. It is therefore evident that neither the spirit of truth nor the spirit of Christian charity inspires utterances like the one credited to this speaker.

It is a matter of common knowledge that the teachings of Christian Science improve the character and lives of those who practice them; and if this means that the devil animates the Christian Science movement, as this speaker would imply, it must be the same devil that the Jews charged Jesus with possessing, since the influence in both cases is the same. It has not generally been supposed that the devil works so assiduously to make human beings more genuinely good and loving, and to uplift mankind, nor have the churches so taught; hence the conclusion is inevitable, either that this gentleman is spreading a false report, or that the devil, after all, is not so black as he has been painted.

We have the authority of Christ Jesus himself that good fruit cannot be gathered from a corrupt tree; also the testimony of the apostle that "he that doeth righteousness is righteous;" and this authority and testimony will be accepted by most Christians in preference to that insistent dogmatism which would brand as false whatever presumes to differ from it.

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