Article February 21, 1920 Issue

The advice of a well-known writer, quoted in the Empire...

W. Stuart Booth

Gunnison (Colo.) Empire

The advice of a well-known writer, quoted in the Empire to regard death as a friend, not as a foe, is so diametrically opposite to the teachings of Mary Baker Eddy, who is mentioned therein, that a word of explanation seems desirable for the benefit of those of your readers who might otherwise be misled. Christian Science is based solely on the Bible, wherein death is designated, not as a friend, but as an enemy to be overcome. The example of Christ Jesus, our Way-shower, in meeting and mastering this enemy for himself and others substantiates the correctness of this designation of death as an enemy. However, Christ Jesus did not master death by continuing long in the material sense of being, but rather by laying off the material and transitory for the spiritual and eternal in his daily thinking and living.

The recognition of this scientific method of proving the true nature of life led Paul to write, "To be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace." This corresponds perfectly with Jesus' definition of life as written in John, "This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." The present and eternal verity of that saying is apprehended when it is seen that, since God is Spirit or divine Mind, it must and does follow that man, made in His image, is not a material organism, but is spiritual or divinely mental in nature, consciousness, and activity. Christian Science insists that this scientific statement of life must be made our daily ideal, and as we consistenly endeavor to live up to this ideal it is realized and proved in a measurable degree in the healing of sickness and sin and the consequent harmonizing of our present sense of life.

The statement that Mrs. Eddy taught "the possibility of living continually and perpetually in the body," is refuted and absolutely reversed by her writings. On page 368 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," the Christian Science textbook, she writes: "That Life is not contingent on bodily conditions is proved, when we learn that life and man survive this body. Neither evil, disease, nor death can be spiritual, and the material belief in them disappears in the ratio of one's spiritual growth." Christian Scientists know that, as Paul says, "whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord;" therefore in following the teachings of Christian Science we are "willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord" in our thinking and living.

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