Article January 16, 1926 Issue

A press dispatch in the Oregonian last Friday tells of...

Theodore Burkhart, Committee on Publication for the State of Oregon,—Portland

Oregonian

A press dispatch in the Oregonian last Friday tells of the central organization of American rabbis, in annual convention at Cincinnati, adopting a resolution recognizing the need of Judaism for something in the way of mental healing in order to prevent wholesale conversions to Christian Science. It is gratifying to see how the importance of meeting some of the unsatisfied needs of mankind is becoming recognized by our friends of other faiths, for such awakening to the desire for a better understanding of how a church may contribute more to the welfare of its members is but a forerunner of that happy day when churches of all denominations will be found healing all manner of human ills by spiritual means alone. These evidences of reaching out for truth presage a growth in spirituality whose ultimate will be the establishment of the brotherhood of man. I wish to correct, however, the erroneous impression conveyed by your headlines and the dispatch itself that mental suggestion and Christian Science are similar, and may be used as interchangeable terms. The so-called "power of mental suggestion" is not a factor in the healing work of Christian Science, neither have these two systems anything in common, although there seems to be a rather general impression to the contrary among those uninstructed in the teachings of Christian Science. It forbids suggestion formulas as well as the exercise of the human will and hypnotic influence of one mind over another.

Christian Science should not be confused with aught that deviates from the teachings and practice of the Founder of Christianity. We have no record of Jesus ever saying, "Ye shall learn to use suggestion, and suggestion shall cure your ills;" but he did say, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." In solving a problem in mathematics we do not reach the correct solution by any process of suggestion. Rather, do we seek to know the rules of mathematics and apply our knowledge of the truth about numbers to the particular problem at hand. The secret of the success of Christian Science, says Mrs. Eddy in "Miscellaneous Writings," page 365, lies in its "supplying the universal need of better health and better men." It satisfies "the heart's great needs," not by offering mankind husks of suggestion, but by revealing to the receptive heart the truth about God, man, and the universe.

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