Article July 7, 1923 Issue

If any one will read the chapter entitled "Atonement and Eucharist"...

W. Stuart Booth, Committee on Publication for the State of Colorado,—Lamar

Daily News

If any one will read the chapter entitled "Atonement and Eucharist" in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," he will see that Mrs. Eddy does not reject the doctrine of atonement, although she does therein give an explanation of it which differs from the theories and doctrines of other Christian believers. That need not be so startling when it is remembered that most churches have points of doctrinal difference. Because the Bible teaches a God "with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning," Christian Science logically points out that the purpose and effect of the atonement of Christ is, as Mrs. Eddy says in Science and Health (p. 19), "to reconcile man to God, not God to man." Obviously, it is a sinning mortal who needs to be changed in order to be saved from sin, and from its inevitable punishment. And how is he to be changed except, primarily, in his thinking? A meaning of the Greek word translated "to repent" is "to think differently." Paul wrote, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." Obedience to that injunction alone will reconcile one to God, and enable him to realize and manifest man's at-one-ment or unity with divine Mind.

The preacher's objection to the Christian Science teaching that sickness is primarily an error of thought is unfortunate for him, because Christ Jesus specifically taught and proved this very thing. To the one sick of the palsy he said, "Thy sins be forgiven thee." Surely sin is an error of thought. Many similar instances could be cited, but one is sufficient to show our Master's thought about sickness, its cause and its cure. Jesus said that the laborer is worthy of his hire, and therefore preachers expect and receive remuneration for their services. Similarly, Christian Scientists justly accept compensation for their labor in assisting people to learn that truth which the Bible states makes men free. Furthermore, because the divine Principle and rules of Christian Science are being daily demonstrated in the healing of sin and sickness, they are logically undeniable. An attempt to deny or discredit them must constitute a denial of the omnipotence of God and of the promises of Christ Jesus, which furnish the basis and the authority for Christian Science precept and practice.

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