Article January 29, 1927 Issue

Members of the Christian Science church have no desire...

Albert E. Lombard, Committee on Publication for Southern California,—Bakersfield

Californian

Members of the Christian Science church have no desire for controversy with those who disagree with them, but space is asked to correct statements in a letter published in "The Readers' Viewpoint" recently, regarding Mrs. Eddy and prohibition. In his communication the writer of the letter erroneously omitted the words "unconstitutional and unjust" in quoting from "Miscellaneous Writings" by Mary Baker Eddy; so that her statement was not correctly repeated. Mrs. Eddy's whole sentence is as follows: "Unconstitutional and unjust coercive legislation and laws, infringing individual rights, must 'be of few days, and full of trouble; " (ibid., p. 80). The prohibition amendment to the Constitution is not "unconstitutional and unjust," since it was adopted by an almost unanimous vote of the states, following a discussion which lasted in the United States for over fifty years, and in which its justice and moral need were fully established. The constitutionality of the prohibition enforcement law has been sustained by the Supreme Court of the United States.

Christian Scientists approve of constitutional legislation and the enforcement of moral codes, and recognize the right of the majority to make the laws and regulations which shall govern the nation. It was Mrs. Eddy's patriotic policy to "help support a righteous government" (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 276); and it is the privilege of her followers to support patriotically this "righteous government" by upholding the Constitution of the United States and the constitutional laws of our nation. Mrs. Eddy did not say, as the writer of the letter mistakenly claimed, that "man, imbued with this Science of healing, is a law unto himself, needing neither license nor prohibition." When referring to divine Mind, God, Mrs. Eddy said (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 260), "Mind, imbued with this Science of healing, is a law unto itself, needing neither license nor prohibition; but lawless mind, with unseen motives, and silent mental methods whereby it may injure the race, is the highest attenuation of evil."

The discovery of Christian Science in 1866 was the outgrowth of Mrs. Eddy's deep spirituality and high morality. In the meetings of the Good Templars, which she had joined in 1864, the importance of total abstinence and the need of prohibition legislation were strongly emphasized. It is not possible that Mrs. Eddy could have reversed her position on these or any other moral questions after her discovery of Christian Science. The Christian Science church, founded by Mrs. Eddy, insists on total abstinence and is standing squarely behind the enforcement of the prohibition amendment.

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