Article March 6, 1926 Issue

We feel sure that if your correspondent had had a fuller...

Charles M. Shaw, Committee on Publication for Lancashire, England,

Southport Visiter

We feel sure that if your correspondent had had a fuller knowledge of what Christian Science is he would not have publicly stated that it is "a negation of the gospel revelation." That revelation and its object could scarcely be more comprehensively and yet concisely expressed than in these words of the Master: "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." Christian Science is giving a fuller life to thousands every year. It is healing the sick, many of whom had been pronounced incurable. It is reforming the sinner; liberating the slaves of passion and vice; transforming hopelessness and despair into courage and joy; and giving to great numbers who were sunk in materialism, spiritual ideals and interest. And all these are achieved by a more or less conscious at-one-ment with God through Christ Jesus, the Way-shower, and the spiritual interpretation of his life, works, and teachings as given in the writings of Mary Baker Eddy.

The quotations given by your correspondent illustrate the frequent misconceptions of Christian Science that abound through imperfect acquaintance with it. For example, "It [Christian Science] goes on building its churches of material bricks and stone while it denies the existence of bricks and stones." Possibly the correspondent has a very poor opinion of Christian Scientists, but they are not so absurd as this statement implies. They recognize the existence of bricks and stone and of all material objects and also of sin, disease, and death—as phenomena of human existence. And so they build churches and help to build houses, factories, and ships; they set themselves to heal sickness and sin, and hope to overcome death as the Master enjoined. But while Christian Scientists utilize or rectify the phenomena of human existence, they do not make the mistake of confusing the phenomenal with the real; and so they deal with human existence from the standpoint of the real, that is, the spiritual and divine, thereby gaining a degree of dominion over it in accordance with the teachings of Christ Jesus.

On page 124 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mrs. Eddy says: "Spirit is the life, substance, and continuity of all things. We tread on forces. Withdraw them, and creation must collapse. Human knowledge calls them forces of matter; but divine Science declares that they belong wholly to divine Mind, are inherent in this Mind, and so restores them to their rightful home and classification." The teaching of Christian Science, that what is called matter is a false sense of spiritual reality, is supported by this passage from Hebrews: "Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear." Christian Science may not conform to the mediæval theological interpretations of the Scriptures, but it is entirely in line with the teachings of Christ Jesus, and it performs the works which he declared were the hallmarks of divine authority.

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