Article February 27, 1926 Issue

Extracts from Reports of Christian Science Committees on Publication for the Year Ended September 30, 1925

In reporting on the activities of the Committee on Publication for the twelve months just passed, we are grateful to be able to say that conditions have been most encouraging. Our Cause has prospered; and the growth in membership throughout the state has exceeded that of any previous year. New churches and societies have been organized and formally recognized by The Christian Science Board of Directors. This continued progress and prosperity furnishes convincing proof that church activity in this field is in a marked degree characterized by that sanity and helpful co-operation so highly commended by our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy. In submitting corrections to erroneous statements we are cautioned by Mrs. Eddy to proceed in a Christian manner. Not only the spirit of our articles must be Christian in character, but likewise our dealings with editors and all others with whom the carrying out of our duties may bring us into contact. The value of such procedure on the part of Committees on Publication and their Assistants is indicated in the improved attitude of the press towards Christian Science and Christian Scientists. This is especially noticeable in the secular press. It is seldom that the better papers quibble over printing a correction. To be sure, it is still necessary at times to emphasize the moral obligation and discreetly to point out the possible legal liability on the part of publishers in connection with the printing of statements misrepresenting the teachings and practice of Christian Science. It is only just to say, however, that, as a rule, editors are disposed to be fair and considerate. The improvement with religious and with medical papers is noticeable, but much less pronounced. As an indication of the manner in which Christian Science and the work of Committees on Publication are regarded by the press, we shall quote briefly from articles that have appeared in publications during the past year.

In referring to Christian Scientists, a contributor to a well-known religious periodical said: "When we turn from the peripatetic wizards who come into our communities to tell the people how easily and quickly their dominant desires for wealth, health, and happiness may be realized, to the more serious movements of the day, we are at once struck by such a phenomenon as Christian Science. This ... movement is not to be bowed out with a shrug of the shoulders and a somewhat contemptuous glance. It has lived through its period of trial ... and is now a well-established grouping of modern society. In some way it has found out how to do for great numbers of persons what the churches and the orthodoxies of belief were unable to do. It has answered the needs of many souls in danger of collapse under the strain of modern activity and has saved them from division and despair."

In explanation of the growth of Christian Science a prominent secular monthly has this to say: "Christian Science is here because mentally sick folks were not taught by the organized church to realize the physical benefits that belong to a robust Christian faith." A religious monthly, in an editorial, said: "A brilliant and conscientious New York physician told us the other day that ... he had in some cases recommended Christian Science to enable the patient to obtain the mental rehabilitation which was necessary for his complete recovery." In commenting on the success of Christian Science and commending its constructive methods, a denominational paper stated: "They neither argue nor denounce, but simply endeavor to build up."

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Extracts from Reports of Christian Science Committees on Publication for the Year Ended September 30, 1925

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