Article September 13, 1919 Issue

To write that Science and Health is a muddle of bad...

George R. Lowe

The Renfrew (Ontario) Journal

To write that Science and Health is a muddle of bad philosophy and worse English is to play poorly at a very cheap performance. Why? Because a system of Christian idealistic philosophy and Science cannot be dismissed with a sentence, and because many competent scholars agree that Mrs. Eddy's literary style is excellent and original. Her diction is pure and forcible, her phraseology apt and accurate, and her meaning is clear to those who sincerely seek it.

An antagonistic critic can say that even the Authorized Version of the Bible is poor English (because it is of the time of King James) and that its teachings are utterly contradictory. This simply shows the need of spiritual interpretation. Surely it is humorous to read from the pen of one who belongs to one of about one hundred and forty sects in America, the accusation that Christian Science is sectarian. It can be maintained that Christian Science is no more a sect than Christianity is a sect, although early Christianity has been described as a despised sect. Also he misrepresents utterly the healing of Christian Science when he attributes it to the influence of the human mind. It is the divine Mind, God, who is ever invoked in Christian Science, and reliance upon God, Spirit, is essential in all its healing work, which is according to the instructions of Christ Jesus, who always looked to the Father.

This critic says that Christian Science is not Science, because Mrs. Eddy claims that there is no matter. The Right Hon. Arthur Balfour said, in an address as President of the British Society, that in explaining matter it is explained away. Natural science reduces matter to electrical ions, to theoretical force, and leaves the inquirer to wonder what is beyond force. Christian Science bases its teachings on Principle and deduces its conclusions logically. In Christian Science effect follows cause consistently. Cause being good, the effect must be harmonious. In Christian Science the personality of Deity is defined as infinite. God is not a corporeal person but is incorporeal. On page 116 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mrs. Eddy writes, "If the term personality, as applied to God, means infinite personality, then God is infinite Person,—in the sense of infinite personality, but not in the lower sense."

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