Article September 2, 1922 Issue

The understanding of God and His law gave Jesus the...

John W. Harwood, Committee on Publication for Lancaster County,—England,

Morecambe Visitor

The understanding of God and His law gave Jesus the means whereby he went about doing good: when challenged by him, evil of every nature, whether manifested as sin, disease, or death, disappeared. In doing this he was fulfilling God's law; as he said, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil." Is it reasonable to believe that the fulfilling of God's law would have destroyed anything which God had created, or which He permitted for some good purpose? It would be impossible. Christian Science classifies all evil (which includes sin, disease, and death) as error, even as Jesus did when he spoke of devil, evil, or Satan, as a liar and the father of lies, "because," he said, "there is no truth in him;" and that is what Christian Science says about evil, disease, suffering, and all the ills "that flesh is heir to." It says there is no truth in these false, so-called mental conditions; and the way of salvation is pointed out by Jesus, in these words: "Ye shall know the truth, and truth shall make you free." This is the truth Christian Science is teaching: that God is good, infinite Mind, Spirit, Life, Truth, and Love, perfect, immutable, immortal, the only cause and creator; and that the universe including man is spiritual and perfect expressing the nature and attributes of God.

Our Savior said, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." So when our critic states that Christian Science teaches there is no beautiful universe, he is mistaken. It is not, therefore, God's universe and God's man which Christian Science classifies as unreal, but that which conceives of God's creation as material, mortal, mutable, imperfect, sick, sinning, and dying. So Christian Science is not founded on the reality of disease, but rather on the reality of Truth; which proves, in what is termed healing, the falsity, and therefore the unreality, of disease. The same applies to the teaching of Christian Science regarding matter. From the premise that God is Spirit and God is All-in-all, it draws the conclusion that matter is nothing; and it is interesting to note that the physical scientists are acknowledging this. Mr. Balfour said a few years ago that scientists now "explain matter by explaining it away;" but do not let it be thought that when matter is demonstrated to be unreal Christian Science teaches there will be nothing left. It shows that all that has taken place is that there has been an exchange, a transformation through renewing of the mind. In gaining Spirit we lose matter, in gaining good we lose evil, in gaining immortality we lose mortality, and in gaining Life we lose death. Why should ministers of the gospel stand for those things Jesus condemned? Why should they endeavor to retain the material, —the flesh,—which Jesus said "profiteth nothing"? Why should they endeavor to overcome, and help others to overcome, "the world, the flesh, and the devil," if the world and the flesh are as God intended them to be? It is this kind of preaching which leads to despair, and makes it impossible for the signs to follow, which Jesus said should "follow them that believe." That Christian Science can be understood by those who desire truth and will let go their pride of intellect, and prejudice, is proved by the people of all classes who have joined the ranks of Christian Scientists—doctors, lawyers, and ministers—more than one I could name who were formerly ministers in the denomination to which the critic belongs.

Christian Science does not deny the "trinity," but it does not teach that it consists of three persons in one person. It teaches that God, the Father, is divine Mind, and His Son is the spiritual idea; and that the Holy Ghost is that spirit of Truth which leadeth into all truth, and through which God and His Son are revealed. Christian Science teaches that the atonement of Christ includes salvation from sickness and death as well as from sin; also the reconciliation of man to man as well as the reconciliation of man to God. The resurrection of Jesus proves for all time that death is not in accord with God's will, and that to know God "is life eternal."

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