Article September 5, 1925 Issue

Your recent issue carries an address in which Christian Science...

Aaron E. Brandt, Committee on Publication for the State of Pennsylvania,—Johnstown

Tribune

Your recent issue carries an address in which Christian Science is said to have its source in Brahminical pantheism and is therefore "reincarnated Hinduism dressed out with the false name 'Christian.'" I beg leave to correct such an unjust imputation. As Christian Science has its source in the Bible alone, and particularly in the precepts and practice of Christ Jesus, the well-informed reader on the subject may well wonder whether the author of the above statement has ever looked into the subject of Christian Science sufficiently to grasp even faintly any one of its fundamental teachings. An intelligent reader need only consult any of the accessible authorities to see the many irreconcilable differences between Christian Science and the Hindu religion or philosophy; and this is true not only in reference to its early phases of polytheism and personified natural forces but also as to its later monistic and pantheistic traits. In relation to matter and so-called physical forces Christian Science is the very opposite of pantheism, for God is not in any such phenomena, and on the other hand neither are they in God. The one divine intelligence as taught in Christian Science contains within it nothing unspiritual. The fact that one phase of Hindu teaching recognizes sin as existing only in a subjective sense may indicate that this teaching is nearer in this respect to a scientific fact than one which teaches the reality of evil, but it falls far short of proving that Christian Science, a teaching based upon the precepts and practice of Christ Jesus, had its origin in Hindu philosophy. In fact, a careful reading will show that no analogy exists between them.

It should be stated in this connection that Mrs. Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, was the child of devout Christian parents. She was carefully reared and educated in a Christian environment and became so earnest a student of the Bible, and with such a strong faith in its teachings, as to seek for a fulfillment of their promises. It seems quite natural, therefore, that in later years when she was reading the account of the healing of the palsied man by Jesus, such a revelation of Truth came to her as to heal her instantly of the results of an accident supposed to be fatal. Naturally also this encouraged her to study the Bible more intensely than ever, and with the view of discovering a positive rule for healing the sick. The results appear in the text-book of Christian Science, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," and her other writings, through an understanding of which multitudes of people have been healed, and millions are reading and studying the Bible with a renewed hope, many of them gaining a revelation of spiritual Truth such as has not been known in many centuries. Christian Science is thus supplying from the Bible itself the very deficiencies which have been so deplorably lacking in modern Christianity, and which are so necessary to make it convincingly effective in the life of mankind. Therefore attacks upon it are looked upon largely as so many smoke screens raised by opponents to hide their own shortcomings from an inquiring world. He that is incapable of discerning the difference between the spiritual teaching of Christian Science and pagan theories would be wise in following the counsel of Gamaliel and let it alone. Speaking of Christian Science in its application to the treatment of disease, Mrs. Eddy says in Science and Health (p. 126): "I have found nothing in ancient or in modern systems on which to found my own, except the teachings and demonstrations of our great Master and the lives of prophets and apostles. The Bible has been my only authority. I have had no other guide in 'the straight and narrow way' of Truth." The first tenet of Christian Science, to which all Christian Scientists subscribe, reads as follows (Science and Health, p. 497): "As adherents of Truth, we take the inspired Word of the Bible as our sufficient guide to eternal Life."

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