Article December 12, 1925 Issue

One is surprised that a critic, writing in your issue of...

Charles W. J. Tennant,—Enniskillen

Impartial Reporter

One is surprised that a critic, writing in your issue of recent date, says Christian Science is not a religion. Christian Science teaches one to worship God in a devout and reverent spirit, to obey Him to the fullest of one's ability, and to endeavor to fulfill the commands of our Master to heal the sick and reform the sinner as well as to preach the gospel or good news. Christian Science is the exact and scientific statement of the Christian religion, as taught and demonstrated by Christ Jesus. James tells us, "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world." Christian Science in no way teaches its adherents to worship Mrs. Eddy, as the critic asserts; but Christian Scientists are unspeakably grateful to Mrs. Eddy for her faithfulness to God, which enabled her to hear the "still small voice" of Truth so clearly that she was enabled to convey its meaning to countless thousands, lifting them out of sin, disease, want, and woe.

It is incorrect to say that Mrs. Eddy "used the writings of another person to convey ideas which she embodied in a revised edition." Mrs. Eddy is the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science; and even those who do not agree with her views have declared this. For instance, the Rev. Dr. Lyman Powell, who examined the claims that she was not the originator of Christian Science, and who has himself written a book critical of Christian Science, states his conclusion as follows: "Christian Science as it is to-day, is really its Founder's creation. Where she got this idea, or where that, little matters. As a whole the system described in Science and Health is hers, and nothing that can ever happen will make it less than hers."

The Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, is not termed a "Bible" by any Christian Scientist, as our critic avers. All Christian Scientists use the King James Version of the Bible.