A gentleman, referring to "Science and Health with Key...

W. K. Primrose—Redhill, England

Surrey Mirror

A gentleman, referring to "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," writes that the Bible "stands in no need of such keys." Yet there are hundreds of thousands of persons all over the world to-day for whom the secret treasures of the Bible and the teachings of Jesus have been unlocked and made plain by this very "Key," and through the understanding thus unfolded to them they have been freed from disease and ill health, and rescued from the bondage of sin.

On the first page of "Rudimental Divine Science" Mrs. Eddy defines Christian Science as "the law of God, the law of good, interpreting and demonstrating the divine Principle and rule of universal harmony." It was through the understanding of this law that Moses brought the children of Israel out of Egypt; that Elijah restored to life the widow's son; that Elisha brought back from death the child of the Shunammite woman, and by which Naaman was healed of his leprosy.

For three hundred years after our Master's ascension, the members of the early Christian church healed the sick and even, it is recorded, raised the dead; but as personal opinion crept in and the pure teaching of our Master was lost sight of, the power to heal the sick disappeared. It is true that since then men of intense religious fervor and of spiritual perception have healed the sick, but how this healing was done in the interval was never understood until Mrs. Eddy made her discovery and published Science and Health. Of herself she wrote, on page ix of the Preface to that book, "To-day, though rejoicing in some progress, she still finds herself a willing disciple at the heavenly gate, waiting for the Mind of Christ." Our Master taught in parables, and Mrs. Eddy found it no easy task so to write about her discovery that it would be comprehensible to humanity; but that she did successfully convey her revelation to mankind has been proved over and over again by the number of people who have been healed simply by reading Science and Health.

Our critic takes exception to the statement that Jeremiah's true origin and parentage had been revealed to him through the word of the Lord. As your readers are doubtless aware, the Bible opens with the record of the spiritual creation, wherein man is described as made in the image and after the likeness of God, which creation was declared by Him to be "very good." Then follows the record of anotehr creation, which is an account of the mortal or Adam man, and our critic evidently has failed to discern this distinction; yet without perceiving this distinction the Bible must necessarily lose most of its meaning. On page 320 of Science and Health Mrs. Eddy writes: "The most distinguished theologians in Europe and America agree that the Scriptures have both a spiritual and literal meaning. ... The one important interpretation of Scripture is the spiritual."

The correspondent also writes that "Jeremiah had to preach to the people as to their great wickedness." Now, if that were so it must have been a negative mission, unless he also told them how they could be rescued from their bondage. So long as anyone finds pleasure in sin he is not apt to be interested in spiritual things; and as one sows he reaps. When, however, a sinner turns from sin he is ready to listen to the message of the Bible. This message is one of joy and glad tidings. It is that if a person will but turn from sin and obey God's commandments, he will perceive that man is unfallen, and that his true origin and parentage are of God.

Mrs. Eddy's purpose in founding The First Church of Christ, Scientist, as stated in the Manual of The Mother Church (p. 17) was "to organize a church designed to commemorate the word and works of our Master, which should reinstate primitive Christianity and its lost element of healing." If our critic had read the Life of Mary Baker Eddy, by Sibyl Wilbur, or had known even a little of Mrs. Eddy's courage, the sacrifices she made, and what she endured in order to give her discovery to mankind, he would understand why Christian Scientists revere and respect their beloved Leader.

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