Article November 13, 1926 Issue

In no way need we doubt your correspondent's earnestness...

Miss Evelyn Webb, Committee on Publication for County Antrim, Ireland,—Belfast

Evening Telegraph

In no way need we doubt your correspondent's earnestness in wishing to save the people of Belfast from what he believes to be false teachings; but if he will cast his gaze over the history of the Christian churches, he will find that much religious zeal, and even bitter malice and hatred, have been expended by churches in the past against those who came out from them, and who were considered to be heterodox in their views. The sad fact is that such a mental state indicated how very far these persecutors were from understanding the beautiful teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, who told us to love our neighbor as ourselves, and even to love our enemies. Supposing these people had been enemies, which was far from the case, as is recognized to-day, even then their persecution would not have been justified according to the teachings of Christ Jesus. These people had seen more of truth and followed it, and this should have been welcomed. But they rested, however, under the benediction of Christ Jesus' "Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake."

Christian Science, your correspondent admits, is stirring up religious thought and awakening the churches to the commandment of Jesus to heal, as well as to preach. It is certainly arousing Christendom, by example and precept, to an apprehension of the Master's teachings, which tests faith by works rather than by words, and which meets humanity's needs in a practical way, as it did in the days of primitive Christianity. For many years Mrs. Eddy stood through the most bitter persecution almost alone. But God sustained her; and she was enabled to stand because her heart was so filled with love for mankind that when she was reviled she reviled not again, but overcame evil with good. "Marvel not . . . if the world hate you," said Jesus; and none knew better than he the carnal mind's hatred of truth.

I am asked: "Do you believe in a personal God?" Let me say here that what I or your correspondent may believe about God is of little account. What God is, is the allimportant question. "This is life eternal," said Jesus, "that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." It is no small thing to know God aright; and it requires great humility and reverence on the part of mortals to approach this understanding of God's omnipresence to gain even the faintest conception of what this omnipotent presence means to man. "God is infinite," writes Mrs. Eddy on page 19 of her work "No and Yes;" and she adds, "What the person of the infinite is, we know not; but we are gratefully and lovingly conscious of the fatherliness of the Supreme Being." God is not known through the physical senses; and He is certainly not physical personality. The pagan idea of God as a superman is surely not held by any thinker in the world to-day. Our critic seems to have overlooked the fact that it was not Mrs. Eddy who defined the devil as a lie and a liar, but Jesus. In John's Gospel, eighth chapter and forty-fourth verse, we read: "He [the devil] was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it." If Satan were a real being, then God would be responsible for Satan's creation and presence; and it would logically follow that God is the author of both good and evil. This is scientifically impossible and contrary to the Scripture, "A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit." If evil is a part of absolute truth then it must be immortal, and it would be useless to try to overcome it; but this is not so. And we know that good destroys evil as light destroys darkness.

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