Article October 1, 1927 Issue

Bishop Nash's admission that he does not understand...

Cecil E. Benjamin, Committee on Publication for the Cape of Good Hope, Union of South Africa,—Cape Town

Cape Argus

Bishop Nash's admission that he does not understand "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, the textbook of Christian Science, necessarily includes an admission that he does not understand Christian Science itself, and this obviates the need for a detailed reply to some of the incorrect statements contained in his letter appearing in a recent issue of the Argus. The bishop attempts to support his assertion that Christian Science does not heal organic disease by quoting the obviously biased opinions of four medical men. I say "biased" advisedly, for among other things, on the bishop's own showing, these men denied that Christian Science healed at all, while even the bishop himself candidly admits that Christian Science heals functional disease. These opinions cited by the bishop are worthless for another reason, namely, that they were all written a considerable number of years ago; whereas in my letter, published in the Argus recently, I quoted a few out of many opinions expressed quite recently by reputable medical authorities, showing that it has now definitely been recognized that Christian Science heals both organic and functional disease.

As regards the objection to the view of Christian Science that matter is unreal, this is not a subject to be dealt with adequately in a letter of this kind; but I wish to draw the bishop's attention to the fact that since the discovery of radium, investigations of physical scientists into the actual nature of matter have shown that the atom, instead of being the solid substance it once was deemed to be, is made up of electrons, which are "probably the ultimate constituent of all atoms." Professor Eddington, the noted Cambridge authority on astronomy and physics, during the early part of this year, told an audience of Scotsmen in Edinburgh that they were made up of atoms, and that each one of the atoms was porous! A report of the lecture proceeds: "If the most solid man were compressed in all his atoms, so that all the vacant spaces were taken away, this compressed man would have so little solidity left that a magnifying glass would be required to see him." This view of physical science should be at least an indication to the bishop that the Christian Science teaching of the unreality of matter and of the counter truth of the reality of the spiritual universe is by no means, as he suggests, too far-fetched. Christian Scientists accept Christian Science because they find they can prove it; and while they are grateful for the physical benefits it bestows, they are much more grateful for the spiritual uplift and the clearer understanding of God and His Christ which it brings.

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