Article August 30, 1924 Issue

A recent issue of your paper contains an article criticizing...

Arthur John Chapman, Committee on Publication for the State of Louisiana,—Monroe

News-Star

A recent issue of your paper contains an article criticizing Christian Science as a healing agency. The writer of the article would seem to infer that the practice of Christian Science is the practice of medicine without proper qualifications. Now there is no connection between the two methods of healing. Medical practice is plainly material, whereas Christian Science is purely spiritual. Our critic says, "If you are sick, go to a doctor." We do not object to this, and why should he object if we say, "If you are sick, go to God, the great Physician"? In other words, should not a Christian be permitted to follow the advice of the Apostle James, who says: "Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms. Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: and the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him." A Christian Science healer does not merely "insist that there is no disease," but it is his or her business to know that disease is not God-created, and therefore, from the standpoint of God, disease must be, and is, unreal. If disease were real and God-created, it would be eternal and could not be destroyed. Mrs. Eddy puts this more plainly in the following words from "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 460): "Sickness is neither imaginary nor unreal,—that is, to the frightened, false sense of the patient. Sickness is more than fancy; it is solid conviction. It is therefore to be dealt with through right apprehension of the truth of being."

Few people come to Christian Science for healing until after all other means have failed them. Should they be denied the privilege of trusting God and His promises? Christian Science as a religious belief would not be of much benefit to humanity unless its adherents were permitted to practice its teachings, and is it not true that there would be more spiritual healing going on to-day if the Christian churches would follow the injunction of the Master, who commanded his followers to do the works that he did, which include the healing of the sick and the sinful? Are we to understand from our friend that it is "quackery" to practice the Christian religion; or are we to infer that he is lacking in knowledge as to its requirements? We do not see how it is possible to "delude an intelligent mind" by insisting upon a demonstrable understanding of God who, as the Bible declares, "forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases."

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