Article September 23, 1922 Issue

Always those who assail Christian Science fail to give the...

John N. Van Patten, Committee on Publication for Southern California,

Long Beach Press

Always those who assail Christian Science fail to give the public credit for knowing that there is but one test for any religion; and that an evasion of this test is a confession of failure. Jesus established this standard when he said, "Ye shall know them by their fruits." What are these fruits? The healing of sin, sickness, and death. When John the Baptist sent two of his disciples to ask Jesus the Christ, "Art thou he that should come?" Jesus did not say, Yes, because I subscribe to and teach this dogma or that doctrine. He said, "Go . . . and tell John what things ye have seen and heard; how that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the poor the gospel is preached." Is this any criterion for us to-day? Yes. One of several injunctions and commands given by Jesus for people of all times to do likewise is, "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do."

Why does Christian Science not subscribe to the critic's belief that Jesus is God? One reason is that Jesus said he was not—"Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God." Nor does Christian Science accept the critic's doctrine, that all a sinner has to do is to accept the belief that Jesus' blood is a full pardon for all his sins, and that with this acceptance he will be pardoned and pushed into heaven. On page 35 of "No and Yes" Mrs. Eddy writes: "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." Farther on she says, "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." On page 33 of the same book we read: "The glory of human life is in overcoming sickness, sin, and death. Jesus suffered for all mortals to bring in this glory; and his purpose was to show them that the way out of the flesh, out of the delusion of all human error, must be through the baptism of suffering, leading up to health, harmony, and heaven."

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