Article April 17, 1920 Issue

The sermon reported in a recent issue as having been...

C. W. Hale

Terre Haute (Ind.) Tribune

The sermon reported in a recent issue as having been delivered by an evangelist, indicates that he has a wholly erroneous concept of what Christian Science is, and does not understand what it teaches. It reveals again the fact so often proved in the practice of Christian Science that a material interpretation of the Scriptures leads to contradictions and confusion, while a wholly spiritual interpretation opens up the treasure house of the Bible, and reveals its teachings as wholly consistent and logical.

Christian Science accepts unreservedly the teachings of the Bible, and endeavors to fulfill and obey all the commands and admonitions of Christ Jesus. It does not "strike out of the Bible the whole doctrine of the atonement," but gives to mankind the highest and holiest sense of what the atonement is, and proves its teaching by practical demonstration in the healing of sickness and the overcoming of sin. Christian Science teaches that the mission of Christ Jesus was to reveal and prove the love of God to man, and to demonstrate the way out of sinful beliefs into man's rightful heritage as "heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ." Christ Jesus showed to mankind the real relationship of God to man, and demonstrated the atonement, man's at-one-ment or unity with God, and consequently his dominion over all phases of false beliefs and everything that would claim to separate him from God.

Mrs. Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, makes this clear on pages 33 and 35 of her book, "No and Yes," where she has given the following: "The sacrifice of our blessed Lord is undeniable, and it was a million times greater than the brief agony of the cross; for that would have been insufficient to insure the glory his sacrifice brought and the good it wrought. ... It was not to appease the wrath of God, but to show the allness of Love and the nothingness of hate, sin, and death, that Jesus suffered. He lived that we also might live. He suffered, to show mortals the awful price paid by sin, and how to avoid paying it. He atoned for the terrible unreality of a supposed existence apart from God. He suffered because of the shocking human idolatry that presupposes Life, substance, Soul, and intelligence in matter,—which is the antipode of God, and yet governs mankind."

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