Article January 16, 1926 Issue

It is curious how history repeats itself

Frederick C. M. Voigt, Assistant Committee on Publication for the Orange Free State, South Africa,—Bloemfontein

Friend

It is curious how history repeats itself. When in Jesus' time the Pharisees saw him healing a dumb person they said, "This fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils." We know his reply, "Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand: and if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself; how shall then his kingdom stand?" To-day a critic in a letter to the Friend expresses it as his view that Christian Science is the same as suggestion and autosuggestion. It seems that Jesus' reply to the Pharisees explains why suggestion, which is as old as the human mind, has not in all these ages gained that universality which the critic desires. We know that suggestion is the exercise of the human mind, which is capable of producing, and actually does produce, many evil effects. What can be the value of such a mind as a healing factor? On the contrary, Christian Science as expounded in our textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, is a statement of the truth of being, based on the Biblical teaching that God is the only cause and creator, and that "God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good."

It is indeed a most extraordinary statement to make that any system would have a greater following by giving it a misnomer. The true explanation is that Christian Science has its larger following owing to its phenomenal success in healing the sick and the sinning; and it has for that reason, within about sixty years, encircled the globe.

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