Article March 6, 1920 Issue

In as much as the dictionary states that heresy is "an opinion,...

Edwin C. Buck

Newport (N. H.) Republican Champion

In as much as the dictionary states that heresy is "an opinion, or doctrine, subversive of settled beliefs or accepted principles," we will agree with our reverend critic in the statement that Christian Science is heresy. The true state of affairs is stated in the first tenet of our church in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy (p. 497), "As adherents of Truth, we take the inspired Word of the Bible as our sufficient guide to eternal Life." Such words as are found in Mark, "And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; ... they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover," are met with no sophistry, but interpreted to mean exactly what is there stated. Is there any reason to be found anywhere within the covers of the Good Book why the words, "And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up," should have become a dead issue, while the statement, "And if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him," is an ever active text?

This making again "lively stones" of those passages of the Bible which have fallen into disuse, but were practiced by the early church, until about 300 A. D., has aroused a furor in the religious world. Christian people had considered it necessary to explain those passages of the Bible relating to physical healing by explaining them away, owing to the lack of enough spiritual understanding on the part of the followers of the churches to do the works which Jesus expressly stated Christians should do. Jesus said, "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do."

The firm stand taken by Christian Scientists for the omnipotence and omnipresence of God, and the signs which must inevitably follow this stand,—the healing of the sick, the sensual, and the sinner,—account for its rapid growth. Within the lapse of a single generation it has encircled the globe. When one sees between four and five thousand people gathered for worship at every service in The Mother Church in Boston, twenty-two churches filled in Greater New York, sixteen in Chicago, and many others in smaller towns, the invariable question is, "Why?"

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