Article July 5, 1919 Issue

Space will permit but one sample of a critic's "quotations":...

B. F. Chandler

Richmond (Va.) Journal

Space will permit but one sample of a critic's "quotations": "They saw him after his crucifixion and learned that he had not died." Science and Health says (p. 45): "Jesus' students, not sufficiently advanced fully to understand their Master's triumph, did not perform many wonderful works, until they saw him after his crucifixion and learned that he had not died. This convinced them of the truthfulness of all that he had taught." Taken as a whole the paragraph does not mean, as the critic implies, that Jesus did not experience and overcome death, but that by their contact with him his students learned that the tragedy on Calvary had not ended his earthly career, as they had supposed. So it is throughout this lady's citations. Her statement that the definition of Adam is "error," is but part of the truth. It is written like this (Science and Health, p. 579): "Adam. Error;" and then follows a full page of other definitions, according to the sense in which the word is used. And angels are not defined as "pure thoughts," but as "God's thoughts passing to man" (p. 581), which might be able to stop even the mouths of lions.

Scriptural texts, offered to contradict the "quotations" from Science and Health, are chiefly interesting as an exhibition of ingenuity. Every one knows that a Scriptural text can be found to prove or to disprove almost anything. And it would not be difficult to find texts to contradict every one this critic uses. For instance, she quotes the passage in Genesis: "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually," which is flatly contradicted by Habakkuk: "Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity." All of this serves to emphasize the contention of Christian Science (Science and Health, p. 320) that "the one important interpretation of Scripture is the spiritual."

"Which, then, will you accept, the word of God or the word of a woman?" is a question which is constantly repeated in this critic's lesson on Christian Science. Of course, the question includes the tacit admission that her interpretation of the Scripture is "the word of God." The last census showed about two hundred different Christian denominations in the United States. They exist because of different interpretations of the Scriptures. It is, therefore, possible that some might question the tacit admission by our critic that hers is "the word of God." Jesus said, "By their fruits ye shall know them;" and it is on the basis of works rather than words that the determination should be made.

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