Article January 4, 1919 Issue

An anonymous correspondent writing under the pseudonym...

M. Scott Till

Eastbourne (England) Gazette

An anonymous correspondent writing under the pseudonym "Icon" is distressed that you reported Mr. Virgil O. Strickler's lecture on Christian Science, "one of the most absorbing lectures of its kind that has recently been given in Eastbourne." Taking into consideration the fact that "Icon" believes "Christian Science is not materially different from other religions and has much in common with other forms of superstition that are not Christian," his distress over the reception accorded a lecture on the subject is perhaps not surprising, and his very failure to discern the difference between its teaching and the two hundred different kinds of religion he mentions, must necessarily result in the very confusion in which he finds himself as regards its teaching.

We would, however, earnestly recommend your anonymous correspondent to lose no time in becoming acquainted with the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, in order that he may learn the fundamentals of its teaching, and thereby be prevented from again falling into the somewhat regrettable error of parading his ignorance on this subject in so public a way.

He will thus learn that Christian Science is no new cult, no new religion, as he now erroneously believes it to be, but that "divine Science derives its sanction from the Bible, and the divine origin of Science is demonstrated through the holy influence of Truth in healing sickness and sin. This healing power of Truth must have been far anterior to the period in which Jesus lived. It is as ancient as 'the Ancient of days.' It lives through all Life, and extends throughout all space" (Science and Health, p. 146). He will learn that Christian Science differs from all other religions through Mrs. Eddy's discovery that the same power which heals sin heals also sickness; and in the Preface of her textbook (p. Xi) he will find that "the physical healing of Christian Science results now, as in Jesus' time, from the operation of divine Principle, before which sin and disease lose their reality in human consciousness and disappear as naturally and as necessarily as darkness gives place to light and sin to reformation."

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