Article December 13, 1924 Issue

A contributor to the American of recent date objected...

Ven Buren Perry, Committee on Publication for the State of North Dakota,—Aberdeen

Morning American

A contributor to the American of recent date objected because you treated the Christian Scientists with the same generosity shown other denominations, and printed extracts from one of their lectures. Aside from the fact that these were of real news value because the lecture was largely attended and drew many people from considerable distances, the American should be commended for its impartiality and for the generous space it gives to religious matters of all denominations. As this critic also expressed some unwarranted opinions of what he thought Christian Science to be, and made fragmentary and inaccurate quotations from its textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, please permit me, as an authorized writer on the subject, to make correction.

To be sure, Christian Science does not embrace all of the definitions, doctrines, and dogmas over which ecclesiastics have disputed for centuries. Indeed, there are so many denominations, and their differences in doctrine are so great, that it is impossible to know what our critic intended in saying that Christian Scientists deny the atonement of sins, salvation by faith, and other doctrines. Being based entirely upon the Scriptures, Christian Science is perfectly logical upon all these subjects. We acknowledge Jesus' atonement, which was the final proof that sin, disease, and death can be overcome by living in accord with the Master's teaching; but we do not believe that it furnishes an avenue of escape from punishment for sin that is unrepented of and unforsaken. We believe in salvation by faith, if that faith is accompanied by a practical demonstration of Jesus' teachings, believing with James that "faith, if it hath not works, is dead."

That we deny the reality of sin, disease, and death is true. Therein lies the key to the healing and saving power of Christ and Christian Science. Mrs. Eddy writes (Science and Health, p. 472): "All reality is in God and His creation, harmonious and eternal. That which He creates is good, and He makes all that is made. Therefore the only reality of sin, sickness, or death is the awful fact that unrealities seem real to human, erring belief, until God strips off their disguise."

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