Article March 6, 1920 Issue

The newspaper announcement of a sermon on "Christian Science...

W. Stuart Booth

Loveland (Colo.) Reporter

The newspaper announcement of a sermon on "Christian Science and the Bible upon the Doctrine of Sin" was so misleading that in justice to your readers a word of explanation is offered. The basis of Christian Science teaching and practice is Scriptural; namely, that God, good, infinite Spirit, divine Mind, made man in His image and likeness; hence the man of God's creating, the true, eternal man, is good, is spiritual, or divinely mental, for, as the Bible states, "God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good." The acceptance of this premise leads to the conclusion that sinning, sick, mortal man is nothing other than a false sense of man, which must be laid off for the spiritual and true, even as Paul indicates in his epistle to the Romans, "Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."

The clerical critic of Christian Science would undoubtedly object strenuously if a critic of the Bible were to quote incomplete and detached portions thereof as a basis of criticism; yet this is exactly the method he has adopted in his attack upon Christian Science. On page 475 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" will be found Mrs. Eddy's words quoted in part by this preacher. The full paragraph is: "Man is incapable of sin, sickness, and death. The real man cannot depart from holiness, nor can God, by whom man is evolved, engender the capacity or freedom to sin. A mortal sinner is not God's man. Mortals are the counterfeits of immortals. They are the children of the wicked one, or the one evil, which declares that man begins in dust or as a material embryo. In divine Science, God and the real man are inseparable as divine Principle and idea."

Christian Scientists do not attack the religious beliefs of others; for they are humbly and prayerfully endeavoring to obey Christ Jesus' dual, yet single and inseparable, command to preach the gospel and heal the sick. He gave one unerring test of discipleship when he said, "By their fruits ye shall know them." Christian Science bids its adherents accept this gauge, and enables them to bring forth, to a measurable and encouraging degree, the fruits of healing, which Christ Jesus promised should follow them that believed on or understood him.

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