Article February 26, 1927 Issue

It seems quite unwarranted that asking one to rely...

J. Latimer Davis, Committee on Publication for the State of Iowa,—Clinton

Journal of the Iowa State Medical Society

It seems quite unwarranted that asking one to rely wholly upon God, the creator and benefactor of man, should be construed as an appeal to the credulity of an individual. And yet that is the essence of a declaration made by the writer of the article, "The Art of Medicine," appearing in a recent issue of your publication, when he alleges that Christian Scientists live upon the credulity of the most enlightened people. Healing through Christian Science practice is accomplished only by a right understanding of God and man's relation to Him. To the Christian Scientist the divine Mind is the only source and means of relief from the discords of human experience, including sickness and sin. Confidence in the infinite should not occasion accusation of resorting to methods questionable and sinister; and such an allegation is unjust. It cannot truthfully be said of Christian Scientists that they misstate the cause of a malady in order to prove the rationality of the treatment given, as was further alleged by the writer mentioned. The results of Christian Science practice furnish the proof of its efficacy, and likewise of the rationality of its application, just as, in accordance with the maxim of Christ Jesus, the great Metaphysician, fruit distinguishes a tree.

Your contributor's frank admission that "camouflage may be wrong and deceitful, but woe unto him who practices medicine without some of it," may portray medical practice as he would have it observed, but at the same time it reminds one of another pronouncement of "woe" written long ago and recorded in Isaiah: "Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil." Neither camouflage nor any form of suggestion enters into the practice of Christian Science, although it might be inferred from the article under review that it does. But as stated on page xi of the Preface to the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, "The physical healing ofChristian 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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