Article January 15, 1927 Issue

I have read with much interest the reports of the meeting...

Miss Florence B. Russell, Committee on Publication for Hampshire, England,—Winchester

Hampshire Observer

I have read with much interest the reports of the meeting held recently when the Bishop of Southampton and Dr. Lyttelton spoke on the subject of spiritual healing, and made it very clear that Christians are awake to the fact that there is healing power given by God beyond what has at present been generally recognized. One is also grateful for the measure of kindliness bestowed by Dr. Lyttelton upon Christian Scientists in his reference to the teaching which has led the way to the exercise in this age of this priceless understanding. But it is surprising to find that Christian Science should have been termed "a superstition;" and a reference to Webster's dictionary for the correct definition of the word does not justify its use. Far from being an expression of ignorance concerning spiritual power, Christian Science gives one a clearer understanding of God and His Christ than has been given since the time when Jesus himself taught of the Father and endowed his followers with healing power, charging them to heal the sick, to cast out demons, and to raise the dead while they also preached the gospel. Christian Scientists do not look upon physical healing as the chief part of their religion, as the speaker seems mistakenly to imply; they strive by study of the Bible, together with the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, and by prayer, to gain more of the Mind of Christ and to live faithfully in accordance with what they learn. Then, as they practice the truth which they have learned, the healing works appear as the natural results—the "signs following."

If the revelation of Truth and the interpretation of the Bible which have come to Christian Scientists through the purified thought and life of their Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, have again brought to human experience the healing activity which is proclaimed throughout the Bible as accompanying righteousness, it should warrant the assumption that that interpretation of the Bible is correct and worthy of impartial investigation. It should not be shocking to find that this teaching, though entirely in line with the Scriptures, is not the interpretation commonly taught in the churches. For instance, in speaking of the human life of Christ Jesus, Dr. Lyttelton stated that "the creator of the world came down on this little earth on which we are gathered." If that statement means that the orthodox churches teach that God lived a limited human existence for thirty-three years and was crucified by mortals, then Christian Scientists rejoice that they have gained a truer sense of God as infinite, supreme, ever present Mind, which cannot be confined by finity. The teaching of Christian Science on this subject may be found in the textbook above named; and the following extract is taken from pages 333 and 334: "The divine image, idea, or Christ was, is, and ever will be inseparable from the divine Principle, God. Jesus referred to this unity of his spiritual identity thus: 'Before Abraham was, I am;' 'I and my Father are one;' 'My Father is greater than I.' ... By these sayings Jesus meant, not that the human Jesus was or is eternal, but htat the divine idea or Christ was and is so and therefore antedated Abraham; not that the corporeal Jesus was one with the Father, but htat the spiritual idea, Christ, dwells forever in the bosom of the Father, God, from which it illumines heaven and earth; not that the Father is greater than Spirit, which is God, but greater, infinitely greater, than the fleshly Jesus, whose earthly career was brief."

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