Article August 20, 1927 Issue

In order that your readers may be correctly informed,...

Ralph G. Lindstrom, Committee on Publication for the State of Colorado, in the

Durango Evening Herald

In order that your readers may be correctly informed, the courtesy of sufficient space to make brief answer to some of the criticisms of Christian Science by a clergyman, as printed in his letter in your recent issue, is respectfully requested. Possibly one reason why Christian Scientists find it easy to feel charitably inclined toward those who wholly fail to grasp the teachings and operations of Christian Science is the fact that many of them labored under these same mistaken notions until healing of some sickness or sin caused them to accept the truth about Christian Science rather than what its opponents would like to believe about it. That the Christian Science movement is never engaged in unkindly criticism of fellow religionists in other churches, is indicated by the two-column department in The Christian Science Monitor entitled "Progress in the Churches," which is completely given over to news of progress in churches other than Christian Science churches.

It is rather strange to find our friend disturbed because Christian Science teaches that matter is only temporary and therefore unreal. Jesus said: "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing;" and Paul tells us, "To be carnally [fleshly] minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace." Clearly then Mrs. Eddy was only following in the footsteps of Christ Jesus and the great Apostle Paul when she taught the unreality of matter; and in these days leading thinkers everywhere, including those prominent in the great church organization of which our critic is a member, are rapidly coming freely to acknowledge the correctness of this view. Indeed, the general view of careful thinkers to-day has been splendidly summed up in the interesting statement by Lord Arthur Balfour, "We now know too much about matter to be materialists."

It would not trouble our friend to agree that "two times two are five" is untrue, and therefore has no real existence in mathematics. Such a proposition is not and never could be true in arithmetic, and yet it would bring unfortunate results to one believing in its claim to existence as a fact. The fact that it is unreal, because untrue, does not save us from the necessity of proving it nonexistent to true arithmetic. Merely to say that this error is untrue is not enough; we must prove it untrue by proving what is true—namely, that two times two are four. So it is not enough to say that evil and disease are only temporary error and therefore nonexistent in God's creation; we must prove this. We must prove this great truth by knowing the truth; and Jesus said, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." The Christian Science method is stated on page 447 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures": "Expose and denounce the claims of evil and disease in all their forms, but realize no reality in them. A sinner is not reformed merely by assuring him that he cannot be a sinner because there is no sin. To put down the claim of sin, you must detect it, remove the mask, point out the illusion, and thus get the victory over sin and so prove its unreality." Unless sickness and sin are unreal, they will exist forever, for as we read in Ecclesiastes, "I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it." Our critic friend seems to admit the healing of sickness by spiritual means. When Jesus healed the man of palsy he plainly showed that the same spiritual means would heal sin, for he said, "Whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and walk?"

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