Article May 23, 1925 Issue

Incorrect knowledge of Christian Science is displayed by...

Richard H. Smith, Committee on Publication for the State of Montana,—Great Falls

Tribune

Incorrect knowledge of Christian Science is displayed by the preacher whose sermon you reported in one of your recent issues. Christian Science is religion. It does not exaggerate bodily healing or specialize in it. We cannot agree with the statement that ill health "can be cured only by natural means." God's omnipotence precludes any power or reality in His unlikeness, sin and suffering. We do not seek God in strange and untried ways. "We acknowledge and adore one supreme and infinite God" (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, p. 497). We believe, practice, and apply the statement that "there is no power but of God." If with such standards we merit classification with "the cults," it is difficult to conceive what would be necessary to be a religion. In Mark 16:17 and 18, a number of signs are enumerated which indicate when a belief or an understanding of God is present. One of these is, "They shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover." In Christian Science this healing is done. The fact is so well established as to be scarcely ever disputed. The logical deduction, then, is that we are correctly applying the Scriptures, but not that we exaggerate bodily healing and specialize in it. The primary purpose of Christian Science is to regenerate spiritually. Its Discoverer and Founder, Mary Baker Eddy, says on page 2 of "Rudimental Divine Science": "Healing physical sickness is the smallest part of Christian Science. It is only the bugle-call to thought and action, in the higher range of infinite goodness. The emphatic purpose of Christian Science is the healing of sin." As proof that in the healing of sin it is successful, we need only point to the lives of Christian Scientists.

Evil and suffering to human sense do indeed seem very real; but one cannot accept the Scripture that "there is no power but of God," and ascribe power to evil and suffering. The Scriptures tell us that all that God made was good. He did not, therefore, make evil or suffering, because they are not good. To admit, then, that evil and suffering have power would be to concede a power apart from God. In Christian Science we decline to do this; and to the extent that we know and realize that evil and suffering are no part of God's creation they cease to seem real. To agree with the statement that ill health "can be cured only by natural means," one must necessarily leave out of consideration the many verses of Scripture where it is stated that healing can be accomplished by prayer, as for example in James, where we are told that "the prayer of faith shall save the sick." The Bible records healings by Jesus, and by his followers for many years after him. These were accomplished by prayer,—through spiritual means, and without the cooperation of matter. It is by these means that healings are accomplished in Christian Science.

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