Article May 4, 1918 Issue

Referring to a Christian Science service, the church editor...

Aaron E. Brandt

McKeesport (Pa.) News

Referring to a Christian Science service, the church editor of the News says: "A Christian Science sermon consists of quotations from the Bible, followed by the 'spiritual interpretations' of Mrs. Eddy, read from her textbook, 'Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.' The second reader reads the Scripture; the first reader, Mrs. Eddy's textbook." That is a correct statement, but the comment following it, namely, "Maybe this indicates that Mrs. Eddy's interpretation is greater than Scripture itself, to her followers," is far from the fact. No advantage whatever can be gained by making such comparisons, and no Christian Scientists have occasion to make them. When made by others, they lose sight of the true status of the Christian Science textbook as a key to the Scriptures. The supposition that a key can be greater than the door the key unlocks does not have its origin among Christian Scientists nor in Christian Science teaching. Christian Scientists are content with the fact that their textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," by Mary Baker Eddy, is a key to the spiritual interpretation of the Scriptures, and that it is unlocking to them hidden treasures of priceless value, as proved to them in the healing of all manner of sickness and disease, and the overcoming of all kinds of sin and inharmonious conditions.

Concerning the statement that the sermons delivered at Christian Science services claim to be "undivorced from truth, uncontaminated and unfettered by human hypotheses, and divinely authorized," permit me to add that any doubt upon this point is removed as soon as an understanding of Christian Science teaching is demonstrably gained. A simple illustration will help to explain this. When the early mathematicians discovered the correct relation of numbers, erroneous human hypotheses were eliminated, and it was found, as every pupil understands to-day, that mathematical principles are divorced from error. In like manner Mrs. Eddy, in following the light revealed to her by a scientific interpretation of the Scriptures, found it necessary to remove, in the elucidation of Scriptural teaching, all preconceived notions, human conjectures, and misconceptions in regard to them. But it is a mistake to suppose, as alleged, because one person failed to understand the sermon heard by him, that a common mortal cannot understand such a sermon owing to its being couched in metaphysical and philosophical terms.

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