Article August 7, 1920 Issue

In the paper "The Dual Personality" published in a...

James M. Stevens—Fairmont, Minn.

Martin County Independent

In the paper "The Dual Personality" published in a recent issue, Christian Science is referred to in a way which is almost certain to be misleading. The authority to whom is attributable the statement that Christian Scientists heal disease "through faith and suggestion," could not have been correctly informed concerning Christian Science and its method of healing. Neither faith, as that word is commonly used and probably was intended to be used by the authority, nor suggestion enters into Christian Science healing. Christian Science healing is a restoration of primitive, spiritual healing as taught and practiced by Jesus, and in lesser degree by his disciples and by some of the ancient prophets. Christian Science healing is not faith cure; neither is it the effect of the action of the human mind upon itself or upon another human mind. It is the intelligent application of the ever present law of God. It is the utilization of spiritual understanding in contradistinction to blind belief or to human will power.

The following statements of Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science as found on pages 23 and 144 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," are illustrative of the Christian Science teaching relative to faith and suggestion: "Faith, if it be mere belief, is as a pendulum swinging between nothing and something, having no fixity. Faith, advanced to spiritual understanding, is the evidence gained from Spirit, which rebukes sin of every kind and establishes the claims of God." "Willing the sick to recover is not the metaphysical practice of Christian Science, but is sheer animal magnetism. Human will-power may infringe the rights of man. It produces evil continually, and is not a factor in the realism of being. Truth, and not corporeal will, is the divine power which says to disease, 'Peace, be still.' "

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