Article May 30, 1925 Issue

In a recent issue of your newspaper the question is asked...

Frank A. Updegraff, Committee on Publication for the State of Kansas,—Anthony

Republican

In a recent issue of your newspaper the question is asked ironically, whether Mrs. Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, was a "prophetess of God." In the same paragraph, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" is referred to as "the Christian Science Bible." Kindly permit me to say that nowhere in Science and Health, or in any other of her published writings, does Mrs. Eddy refer to herself as being a "prophetess." She desired to be known as the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science and the Leader of the Christian Science movement. As such she is well known throughout the civilized world. In her book entitled "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" (p. 302) she writes: "I stand in relation to this century as a Christian Discoverer, Founder, and Leader. I regard self-deification as blasphemous." Opprobrious terms cannot detract from Mrs. Eddy's work in the eyes of intelligent people. On the contrary, they serve to expose error, arouse interest in the Cause of Christian Science, and tend to widen the breach between scholastic theology and mankind.

Science and Health is not "the Christian Science Bible." It is exactly what its title, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," declares it to be; and it is so regarded by Christian Scientists and other thinking people. Furthermore, every Christian Scientist subscribes to the following tenet: "As adherents of Truth, we take the inspired Word of the Bible as our sufficient guide to eternal Life" (Science and Health, p. 497). The Bible used by Christian Scientists—the Bible they study daily, the Bible read from the pulpit in Christian Science churches every Sunday and at Wednesday evening meetings—is the King James Version, the same old text that their fathers and mothers used, whether they were Baptists, Methodists, or Presbyterians. And every Christian Scientist is proving in some degree, through his understanding of the teachings of Christian Science, that "the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations." This proof also substantiates the Science contained in Science and Health, which "neither tongue nor pen can overthrow" (ibid., p. 110).

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