An article appeared in a recent issue of the Argus-Press...

Owosso (Mich.) Argus-Press

An article appeared in a recent issue of the Argus-Press in which a traveling revivalist announced as the subject of his closing sermon, "Mischeif Makers and Modern Religious Heresies, Being an Exposure of the False Doctrine of Christian Science," et cetera.

The announcement of such a subject in the manner indicated constitutes in itself an exposure of our critic's ignorance of Christian Science. Christian Science is based solely on the Bible. It accepts in their entirety the teachings of Christ Jesus. It enjoins on its adherents the emulation of Jesus in all his ways. Every command of Jesus to preach the gospel was accompanied by the equally imperative one to heal the sick. Christian Scientists accept the whole gospel of Christ Jesus, the undivided garment, and are healing the sick and the sinning, and casting out devils, evils, in obedience to the Master's commands and in strict conformity with the spiritual method exemplified by him. Can our critic truthfully claim as much for members of the denomination for which he stands sponsor? In the language of James, Christian Scientists might exclaim, "But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?" "Shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works."

If it be making mischief for Christian Scientists to obey all of Jesus' instructions, it were better for mankind were all who call themselves Christians, engaged in it, since such mischief-making destroys only evil. If the Christian Scientist's insistence on the practice as well as the preaching of the whole gospel of Jesus the Christ be false doctrine, it can be false only to the man-made, erroneous, materialistic conception of Christian duty perpetuated by scholastic theology. Of such materialistic beliefs Mary Baker Eddy in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," on page 134 writes as follows: "Man-made doctrines are waning. They have not waxed strong in times of trouble. Devoid of the Christ-power, how can they illustrate the doctrines of Christ or the miracles of grace? Denial of the possibility of Christian healing robs Christianity of the very element, which gave it divine force and its astonishing and unequalled success in the first century."

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