Article December 13, 1919 Issue

In writing a recent letter a critic seemed to be laboring...

George R. Lowe

Renfrew (Ont.) Journal

In writing a recent letter a critic seemed to be laboring under the delusion that Christian Science is opposed to scientific research. On the contrary, the scientific knowledge of God is served by every branch of healthful knowledge and achievement. Honest investigation of everything does not discredit the supremacy of spiritual law but is quite in accord with the gain of spiritual understanding. On page 195 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mrs. Eddy writes: "Academics of the right sort are requisite. Observation, invention, study, and original thought are expansive and should promote the growth of mortal mind out of itself, out of all that is mortal."

In dealing with Science and Health, it is to be regretted that this critic did not quote it actually and accurately, but in an indirect way, giving citations whose correctiness is difficult or incapable of verification. Also, in setting a verse of Scripture over against a sentence purporting to be taken from Science and Health, the supposititious contradiction is merely inferred from an adventitious reading of both. For instance, the Scripture verse, "In your thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God," inculcates exactly what Christian Science enjoins us to do, and is not contradictory to the teaching that true prayer involves much more than petitioning God. Similarly, "blood" has a spiritual significance far beyond any material sense of it.

To test Christian Science by the Scriptures, it is necessary to observe that the religious tenets of Christian Science, as given on page 497 of Science and Health, include adherence to the Bible, acknowledgment of "one supreme and infinite God," "His Son, one Christ; the Holy Ghost or divine Comforter; and man in God's image and likeness;" also "God's forgiveness of sin," "Jesus' atonement as the evidence of divine, efficacious Love, unfolding man's unity with God through Christ Jesus the Way-shower;" and the last tenet reads thus: "And we solemnly promise to watch, and pray for that Mind to be in us which was also in Christ Jesus; to do unto others as we would have them do unto us; and to be merciful, just, and pure."

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