Article May 15, 1926 Issue

In a recent issue of the Citizen, under no title and with no...

Miss V. M. Blanche Stievenard, Committee on Publication for Hertfordshire, England,—Letchworth

Citizen

In a recent issue of the Citizen, under no title and with no name signed, appears a list of what apparently purports to be quotations from the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, arranged in apposition to quotations from the Bible. It is a curious thing that no reference in either book is given; and, moreover, in many instances the supposed quotations are incorrect—partial statements, or half sentences, so isolated from their context that their correct meaning is lost, or quite a wrong concept brought forward. It is clear that whoever complied this list has not in the least degree grasped the teachings of Christian Science, and cannot therefore see their correlation with the Scriptures. He has not yet discovered the line of demarcation between the temporal and the eternal, or the material and the spiritual, although this distinction is clearly brought out throughout the Scriptures, being very definitely taught in the epistles of Paul, who shows that the "old man" must be put off and the "new man" put on; also, that now is the time for this transformation.

It would take too much space to answer fully every point brought forward, but I shall be glad if you will permit me to touch briefly on two or three. The first statement, "There is no matter," should read, "In Spirit there is no matter" (Science and Health, p. 278). Christ Jesus taught that God is Spirit, and since "God created the heaven and the earth" these must partake of His nature, and so be spiritual. In all its attributes so-called matter is opposite to Spirit, God. Hence it is easily seen that in accepting the statement of Holy Writ we can accept its correlative statement. The finite and mutable do not partake of the infinite and immutable.

Again, in speaking of man as incapable of sin, sickness, and death, it is the spiritual man of God's creating who is referred to, the immortal man revealed by Christ Jesus and referred to in Hebrews as "the express image of his person," and who must be coexistent with God—not a sinning, sick, dying mortal, who needs healing and redeeming. To part with the false concept of man and to accept the true is the great need of mankind and their one hope of salvation. Christian Science teaches that God is infinite Person,—not a finite person to be pleaded with, but the divine Principle, infinite good, to be understood,—and that the prayer of faity and understanding shall save the sick.

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