Article March 21, 1925 Issue

In your issue of recent date under the caption, "World Saved...

Ralph W. Still, Committee on Publication for the State of Texas,—Breckenridge

Daily American

In your issue of recent date under the caption, "World Saved by Sacrifice, Says Preacher," appears the statements: "The fact of sin in the world is an acknowledged fact. Mrs. Eddy says, 'Man is incapable of sin,' but John says, 'If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his. word is not in us;' so either Mrs. Eddy or John has been a bit too economical with the truth."

Kindly permit me to say, through your columns, that neither Mrs. Eddy nor John has been "too economical with the truth," for, when understood, the statements above quoted are in complete harmony with each other. It should be noted, however, that the minister did not quote Mrs. Eddy in full, merely citing the bare statement, "Man is incapable of sin," which, by itself, does not give the correct meaning. The entire quotation is found on pages 475 and 476 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." There Mrs. Eddy states: "Man is incapable of sin, sickness, and death. The real man cannot depart from holiness, nor can God, by whom man is evolved, engender the capacity or freedom to sin. A mortal sinner is not God's man." This coincides entirely with John's declaration, found in I John, wherein it is written: "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God." The difficulty in which critics of Christian Science often find themselves comes of being unable or unwilling to understand the differentiation, made by Christian Science, between the man that is "born of God" and "doth not commit sin," and the mortal referred to in I John, who "committeth sin" and "is of the devil."

Christian Science does not teach that human beings do not commit sin; and Christian Scientists fully appreciate the fact that sin seems very real and very terrible in the world; but they are successfully healing all manner of sin through a right understanding of sin's (evil's) untrue nature, and the right application of God's power, which destroys the belief. Christian Science enables one to gain this understanding which destroys sin in individual human experience; and it is daily being proved that a scientific realization of the nature and character of God, of His Christ, and of man in His image and likeness, frees one from every phase of sin or error. We agree again with John that "for this purpose"—the destruction of all those evils or errors, sins, that beset humanity—"the Son of God was manifested."

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