Article February 9, 1918 Issue

In a sermon, a clergyman is reported to have made certain...

Albert F. Gilmore—Albany, N. Y.

The Knickerbocker Press

In a sermon, a clergyman is reported to have made certain statements regarding the teachings of Christian Science which are wholly misleading in their tendency. Overlooking the lack of propriety in denominating as a "modern nostrum" a religion which has a constantly increasing number of followers in every civilized country of the world grateful for release from sin and suffering, it should be pointed out that Christian Science does not, as this gentleman implies, teach the use of human will as a factor in healing. On page 144 of Science and Health Mrs. Eddy states: "Human will belongs to the so-called material senses, and its use is to be condemned. Willing the sick to recover is not the metaphysical practice of Christian Science, but is sheer animal magnetism."

Christian Science quite agrees that "the principal mission of Jesus to this world was not to cure men's bodies." That freedom from ills of the flesh is gained and that discords of every kind and name are overcome and healed as a natural consequence of the gaining of that Mind "which was also in Christ Jesus," a multitude of followers bear grateful witness. Christian Scientists joyfully accept Jesus as the Wayshower who came "to point out the way of Truth and Life" (Science and Health, p. 30), to demonstrate man's freedom from sin, disease, sorrow, in short from every discordant condition, regarding as his primary purpose the demonstration of his divine Principle rather than the healing of the body.

Instead of "exalting the body above the soul," Christian Science definitely states (Science and Health, p. 383): "The Christian Scientist takes the best care of his body when he leaves it most out of his thought, and, like the Apostle Paul, is 'willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.'"

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