Article October 10, 1925 Issue

I shall appreciate an opportunity to comment upon and...

Charles E. Heitman, Committee on Publication for New York,—Buffalo

Courier

I shall appreciate an opportunity to comment upon and correct any false impression that may have been conveyed by the kindly references to Christian Science contained in an article on spiritualism appearing in your recent issue. Fundamentally, Christian Science and spiritualism have nothing in common. The very fact that Christian Science teaches the oneness and allness of Spirit and the nothingness of matter, affirms the eternality of life and denies the reality of sin, sickness, and death as a part of God's spiritual creation, establishes an impassable gulf between it and spiritualism. The whole structure of spiritualistic doctrine rests on the theory that matter and material personalities are real, and that death is an essential and indestructible part of man's experience, whereas the Scriptures aver that death is an enemy to be destroyed. Paul, it will be recalled, said, "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death;" furthermore, Christ Jesus at no time acknowledged the reality of death, but invariably met and mastered this manifestation of mortal belief through his understanding that God is Life and that therefore life is eternal, spiritual, and indestructible. So important did Mrs. Eddy consider the necessity for making plain the distinction between Christian Science and spiritualism that she devoted an entire chapter to the subject in her major work, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," under the title, "Christian Science Versus Spiritualism." A casual reading of this chapter should be sufficient to convince one that the teachings of Christian Science stand squarely against occultism in all its phases. On page 84 of the volume just mentioned occurs the statement: "To understand that Mind is infinite, not bounded by corporeality, ... is a step towards the Mind-science by which we discern man's nature and existence. This true conception of being destroys the belief of spiritualism at its very inception, for without the concession of material personalities called spirits, spiritualism has no basis upon which to build."

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