Article February 28, 1920 Issue

The letter of a clergyman printed in a recent issue calls...

Samuel J. Macdonald

Elizabeth (N. J.) Journal

The letter of a clergyman printed in a recent issue calls for some serious comment. The reverend gentleman begins his letter by declaring that he had found "a moment of entertainment" in reading the report in the Journal of the lecture upon Christian Science delivered in Elizabeth by a member of The Board of Lectureship of The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts. After this introduction, our friend goes on to give in detail the reasons for his "amusement" over the lecturer's statements. He is apparently unaware that this style of criticism is usually highly risky, for the reasons given by the critic do not always justify levity; indeed, when one has to give reasons for "amusement," it generally ceases thereby to be amusing. If our friend had approached the reading of the report of the lecture with more serious intent, he might have found in it food for calm and fruitful reflection, instead of merely an incitement to the complacent, amused smile of superior scholarship.

The reverend gentleman's line of comment from the standpoing of an amused, superior scholarship is a peculiarly unfortunate one for a Christian clergyman to adopt. For example, he says that Mrs. Eddy's "misinterpretations of the Scripture are the laughingstock of the whole world of scholarship." In making this statement he forgets that this identical argument was employed in the first century against Christ Jesus and the apostles. The apostle Paul declares in the first chapter of I Corinthians: "But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness;" and he also asks, in the same context: "Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?" Jesus said, "Ye shall know them by their fruits." Let this be the test. It has never been claimed, and it cannot be claimed successfully, that "the whole world of scholarship" through its theological writings has ever healed the sick; but Mrs. Eddy's great textbook of Christian Science, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," has brought healing to many thousands. The last chapter of that great book, entitled "Fruitage," and comprising a full hundred pages, is made up entirely of voluntary, unsought testimonies of individuals who have been healed of divers diseases, functional, organic, chronic, and "incurable," solely through the reading and study of Science and Health. Human or clerical scholarship can furnish no parallel to this. Wherefore, "ye shall know them by their fruits."

A genuine scholar is indeed the last one to use scholarship as an argument in any behalf, for the best knows that the cemeteries of literature are filled with the follies and failures of scholarship. One well-known writer on astronomy and kindred subjects has devoted an entire lengthy chapter in one of his books to the mistakes and blunders of learned scholars; and this tremendous array is well worth the study of anyone who is disposed to rely upon human authority. Mrs. Eddy writes on page 354 of Science and Health: "The words of divine Science find their immortality in deeds, for their Principle heals the sick and spiritualizes humanity. On the other hand, the Christian opponents of Christian Science neither give nor offer any proofs that their Master's religion can heal the sick."

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