Article March 13, 1926 Issue

May we have the courtesy of your columns to correct the...

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

Independent

May we have the courtesy of your columns to correct the false impression, which we are told is somewhat prevalent in your community, that Christian Scientists worship their Leader, Mary Baker Eddy? The evangelist who recently conducted gospel tent meetings at Woodburn is reported to have intensified that belief by implying that Mrs. Eddy's followers "kneel" to her and deify her. Such is far from the truth, and any one who thinks Christian Scientists deify or worship Mrs. Eddy in any way greatly misunderstands their attitude. Christian Scientists do not worship her, but they do love and revere her as one who was pure enough in personal character and spiritually-minded enough to become the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science.

She it was to whom it was revealed that the Christianity of Christ Jesus is scientific, and as vital and as available today for the healing of all human ills as it was in the days of the Master and his early followers. The Christian Science movement is to-day reinstating primitive Christianity in all its original purity and vitality, and is restoring its lost element of healing. The natural effect of experiencing the many blessings derived from acceptance of Mrs. Eddy's discovery is to make the recipient of those blessings grateful to the Discoverer; but those who are obedient to the teachings of Christian Science do not allow their sense of gratitude to become adoration of personality, which Mrs. Eddy herself expressly forbade. She was ever directing the thought of her followers to God and the one and only Christ, and away from contemplation of human personality. On one occasion, when she took advantage of an opportunity to make her position clear, she urged the Board of Directors of her church "to throttle the lie that students worship me or that I claim their homage" (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 26).

The evangelist, we understand, laid much stress upon the Bible's being so simple that it needed no interpreter. We have observed, however, that all denominations recognize in some degree the importance and value of spiritual discernment in interpretation, and there are few students of the Scriptures of any denomination but make use of commentaries in their study. Tens of thousands of those who have become Christian Scientists testify that they considered the Bible a more or less closed book until its treasures were more fully revealed by their study of Mrs. Eddy's writings. Their gratitude for this unlocking of the Scriptures for them has only led them to study the Bible more than ever before. We agree with the evangelist that the Scriptures are so plain a little child can read and understand them. Unfortunately, however, the adult more often than not lacks the humility of the little child, without which Jesus implied the simplicity of the gospel is not to be discerned. The truths of Christian Science were revealed to Mrs. Eddy through her study of the Bible, which, she says, was her sole teacher. The definite place which she gave the Bible in the church she founded (The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts) is made clear in its first tenet, which reads (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 497), "As adherents of Truth, we take the inspired Word of the Bible as our sufficient guide to eternal Life."

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March 13, 1926
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