Article September 5, 1925 Issue

A bishop recently stated that "the great mass of the...

Miss Madge Bell, Committee on Publication for North Island, New Zealand,—Wellington

Dominion

A bishop recently stated that "the great mass of the people in this land find no use for religion, or have accepted from others the notion that it is useless;" and if Dean Inge, as reported in the Dominion of recent date, is correct in his opinion that it is improper to turn to God, or to urge others to do so, for the healing of sickness (in spite of all that the Bible teaches to the contrary), then the bishop's finding may be regarded as the logical result of the teaching of a church or religion that makes God "a God afar off," and not "a very present help in trouble."

It would be interesting to know what Dean Inge accepts as "the scientific point of view," from which he says, "All miraculous cures are much the same," and that "it does not matter whether the patient goes to Lourdes or to a Christian Science healer, or to a thaumaturgist who practices independently." It seems that he accepts the theories based on the evidence of the physical senses as science; but even medical doctors do not claim that medicine is an exact science. Indeed, they speak quite frankly, for instance, of "the germ theory of disease," and already some of the medical doctors have discarded this theory as unscientific. If true Science is exact, demonstrable knowledge of facts, it must be recognized that the truly scientific viewpoint is not that which is based on the shifting sands of human opinions. In Wycliffe's translation of the Bible we are told that Christ Jesus came to bring "science and helthe" to the people; and Jesus himself said, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." It is the truth taught and demonstrated by Christ Jesus that is accepted by Christian Scientists as the basis for true healing, whether of sin or of sickness, and the so-called miracles are but the outward proof that the Christ, Truth, is known and practiced.

In "Rudimental Divine Science" (p. 1) Mrs. Eddy defines Christian Science as "the law of God, the law of good, interpreting and demonstrating the divine Principle and rule of universal harmony;" and Christian Scientists seek to know and obey this law of God in order to bring harmony in the place of disease. Far from thinking that "some new occult power has been tapped by them," as the dean suggests, Christian Scientists know that "power belongeth unto God," who is light, and they have no desire to theorize or experiment with anything that would deny the omnipotence of God.

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