Article July 31, 1920 Issue

If the clergyman, whose attack on Christian Science is...

Aaron E. Brandt—York, Pa.

The Gazette and Daily

If the clergyman, whose attack on Christian Science is reported in a recent issue, intended to show his lack of knowledge regarding the subject, he could hardly have taken a more effective method. It is rather surprising that before committing the folly of giving his reasons for the attack, he did not realize that if one-tenth of them were true, there would be no Christian Scientists, and certainly not eighteen hundred churches and societies of growing congregations scattered throughout the world. If the statements made by him against Christian Science, or what he supposed it to be, were counted, the number would be found to correspond very closely to the sum total of misrepresentations contained in his sermon. Christian Scientists can feel grateful that this fact is so apparent to all well informed people, including clergymen who to-day are preaching the truths of Christian Science to their congregations, and who would unhesitatingly contradict all the critic's assertions regarding Christian Science as a false revelation.

The simple fact is that Mrs. Eddy, who was a devout Christian and Bible student from her childhood, discovered that the truth which Christ Jesus taught and practiced is a demonstrable, spiritual science; that it is based upon unchangeable spiritual law, and therefore available in all ages to all problems of humanity, including the healing of sickness and disease. She therefore aptly called the truth Jesus taught "Christian Science," and there is nothing from the beginning to the end of Christian Science, as contained in Mrs. Eddy's writings, which is not based upon, and logically drawn from, Christ's law of truth.

Therefore when the critic says that Christian Science is a jumble of "a little philosophy, psychology, religion, therapeutics, mesmerism, mind healing, animal magnetism, faith cure ... pressed down the waiting throats of an ever gullible public," and that Christian Science should be stamped as a "quack nostrum," he says it also, however unwittingly, of the teaching of Christ Jesus. The counsel of Gamaliel should teach him to refrain from such folly. Referring to the persecution of Peter and other apostles because of their Christian work, Gamaliel said, "Take heed ... for if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought: but if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it; lest haply ye be found even to fight against God." "Clergymen," wrote Mrs. Eddy, "occupying the watchtowers of the world, should uplift the standard of Truth. They should so raise their hearers spiritually, that their listeners will love to grapple with a new, right idea and broaden their concepts. Love of Christianity rather than love of popularity, should stimulate clerical labor and progress. Truth should emanate from the pulpit, but never be strangled there. A special privilege is vested in the ministry. How shall it be used? Sacredly, in the interests of humanity, not of sect" (Science and Health, p. 235). Christian Scientists are very grateful in the knowledge that many clergymen have risen above time-honored creeds and dogmas; that they are awake to the fact that in Christian Science "truth is revealed. It needs only to be practised," as Mrs. Eddy wrote on page 174 of Science and Health, and that this healing truth never was intended to be limited, nor need longer to be relegated, to a remote period.

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