Article January 10, 1925 Issue

My attention has been drawn to a somewhat veiled attack...

Judge Clifford P. Smith, Committee on Publication for The Mother Church,—Jackson, Mississippi

Daily News

My attention has been drawn to a somewhat veiled attack on Christian Science by a writer in the News. Though professing to speak in favor of healing by Christ to-day, he attributed to Satan the healing that is being done in the practice of Christian Science, and he attempted to exclude Christian Scientists, from the Church of Christ. In behalf of Christian Scientists, I can safely assume that the News has intelligent readers who will consider that many and various denominations have made exclusive claims to the Church of Christ, and have attempted to shut its doors upon other people whose faith and works were at least equally Christian. This historical fact is likely to keep observant persons from attaching much importance to attacks by one denomination upon another.

In the present instance, the censor of fitness to be accounted Christian set up a test or criterion. He would open the door of the Church of Christ only to those who emphasize "the blood and the deity of Christ." As these quoted words are used by doctors of theology, they mean that no one is a Christian who does not accept a certain dogma concerning the mission of Jesus, and another dogma concerning his relation to God. On these points, and on all others, Christian Scientists accept absolutely all that Jesus said, as his utterances are recorded in the New Testament; but they read his words for themselves, striving for the plainest and most spiritual meanings, and they do not feel bound by the refinements of creedal or traditional doctrine. As is shown by the articles headed "Atonement" and "Trinity" in nonsectarian reference works (for instance, "The New International Encyclopedia"), the views of these subjects now entertained by the majority of Christian people were not explicitly stated by Jesus but were formulated in later centuries as matters of creed or doctrine. Indeed, what is called "the deity of Jesus" can hardly be reconciled with his utterances. For instance, see Luke 18:19, and compare John 4:24 with Luke 24:39.

Of course, Christian Science has its own teaching on such essential topics as the nature and mission of Jesus. It is fully and plainly stated in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, which can be found at Christian Science Reading Rooms and in almost all public libraries. Readers are particularly invited to note the simple and spiritual accord between what Jesus said on any and every subject and the teachings of Christian Science. A brief quotation can hardly do justice to such questions as are the subject of this letter, but the following quotation from page 26 of the above-mentioned book is submitted: "This Christ, or divinity of the man Jesus, was his divine nature, the godliness which animated him. Divine Truth, Life, and Love gave Jesus authority over sin, sickness, and death. His mission was to reveal the Science of celestial being, to prove what God is and what He does for man."

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