Article September 4, 1926 Issue

My attention has recently been called to Arthur Brisbane's...

Richard E. Prince, Committee on Publication for the State of Virginia,

Portsmouth Star

My attention has recently been called to Arthur Brisbane's column in your recent issue. While Christian Science is not specifically mentioned, there is no doubt that he is referring to its students when he speaks of those "who believe that there is no such thing as disease and that all you need do is to deny its reality." There appears to be a misapprehension in the public mind as to just what Mrs. Eddy means by her use of the terms "reality" and "unreality." Reality" is used to denote all that belongs to the spiritual realm, the eternal, unchangeable creations of God; while "unreality" signifies the temporal, ever changing conditions which are visible to the physical senses. The Apostle Paul made this distinction when he said, "While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal." Christian Scientists, therefore, deny that disease is real in the sense that it is not God-created and is not a factor in His perfect universe: "And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good;" but they do not deny, nor do they ignore, the fact that it forms a most distressing phase of human experience. Furthermore, they do not dismiss it with "amiable theorizing," as Christian Science practice involves a vast deal more than a mere denial of the reality of disease. On page xi of the Preface to the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mrs. Eddy has described her method in these words: "The physical healing of Christian Science results now, as in Jesus' time, from the operation of divine Principle, before which sin and disease lose their reality in human consciousness and disappear as naturally and as necessarily as darkness gives place to light and sin to reformation."

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