Article May 10, 1924 Issue

Instead of finding fault with Mrs. Eddy, the orthodox...

W. Truman Green, Committee on Publication for the State of Florida,—Tampa

Morning Tribune

Instead of finding fault with Mrs. Eddy, the orthodox churches should offer her their profound gratitude because she has made clear, to those with eyes to see, the cardinal point of difference between "Jesus" and the "Christ." Jesus was born of Mary, grew to manhood, was tempted as others, and yet was without sin. He was the best man ever upon earth, the one perfect Ensample,—the Way. Christ is not, strictly speaking, a proper name, but an official title. Christ Jesus, or Jesus the Christ, is a mode of expression of the same kind as John the Baptist. In consequence of not subscribing to this, a source of confusion exists, and many passages of Scripture are misapprehended. Christ, Truth, was that which Jesus expressed. The Christ had always existed, even before the world was. Christ Jesus could therefore justly say, "Before Abraham was, I am;" "I and my Father are one;" "My Father is greater than I."

This spiritual consciousness of Jesus was the Christ which reformed the sinner, healed the sick, and raised the dead centuries ago; and it is as potent to-day as then. The Christ is appealing to mankind—and saying to them, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest"—"I will heal you; I will save you." Christ Jesus was God's representative, His ambassador to all mankind, to all peoples and nations. He was an obedient and faithful son, in whom God was well pleased. Christian Science teaches that Christ Jesus is "the way," and says, as did Peter, "There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved."

The word "real" means that which is actual, positive, absolute. To say that either sin or disease is real would be to acknowledge that they were God-created, for the Bible tells us that God created all. Christian Science teaches that neither sin nor disease has any more reality than has a ghost. To deliver the ignorant one from the fright and terribleness of his belief in ghosts, would be to show him through right reasoning that there are, there can be, no such things. This process of right reasoning frees the victim. When it is shown to sin-sick and suffering humanity that all their false beliefs in a power apart from God are unreal because they are not of Him, they are lifted out of their ghost-beliefs regarding these seeming realities. This is the healing the world is so much in need of to-day. It destroys hate, malice, fear, false appetites, sensuality, anger, and all other false conditions of thought which tend to separate man from his Maker. Christian Science is not engaged in an attempt to destroy "nothing," as our critic avers, but it reforms the sinner and heals the sick by destroying the seeming reality of that "nothing." this was the Christ-method; and it can be neither improved upon nor modified in any way.

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