Article February 21, 1920 Issue

That other churches, owing to the success of Christian Science,...

Aaron E. Brandt

Pittsburgh (Pa.) Gazette-Times

That other churches, owing to the success of Christian Science, should sometime take up the ministry of healing, was an inevitable consequence foreseen by Mrs. Eddy. That such an undertaking in view of Jesus' expressed command to his followers to heal the sick, is a necessary Christian duty and therefore commendable, goes without saying; but that a rector of such a church, suddenly coming to a realization of his duties in this respect, should state, as reported, that Christian Science denies the fundamental fact of Christianity, is another matter entirely; for it has no basis of truth.

If the reverend gentleman should go to a Christian Science practitioner for healing, or to a teacher for instruction, he would find himself invariably directed to the truth appearing in the Scriptures as taught by Christ Jesus. He would be told that this truth, and this truth alone, relieves man from sin, disease, and death, through its revelation of the allness of God and His spiritual creation and the unreality of all evil. This at once differentiates between Christian Science healing and the methods pursued by exponents of faith cures. In a brief article entitled "Faith-cure," found in "Retrospection and Introspection" (p. 54), Mrs. Eddy makes plain important differences. Faith cures depend upon blind belief, while Christian Science healing is accomplished through spiritual understanding. Christian Science teaching is thus in absolute accord with that unequivocal statement of John: "All things were made by him [the Word]; and without him was not any thing made that was made."

If, as the reverend critic rightly contends, God is not the author of sin, sickness, and death, it follows that these evils have no existence apart from such seeming existence as human belief and ignorance give them; for otherwise that important statement of John quoted above would have no definite meaning. A belief in the real existence of evil would forever prevent mankind from reaching that painless state of consciousness foretold by John in the twenty-first chapter of Revelation. Blind faith in God's willingness to heal, be it ever so devout and sincere, cannot bring the light and freedom to be obtained through spiritual understanding as was predicted by the prophet Jeremiah in the following words: "And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more."

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