Article September 10, 1927 Issue

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Mrs. Emma Ljunglöf, Committee on Publication for Sweden,—Umea (translation)

Vasterbottens-Kuriren

Your recent issue contains an article under the headline, "Christian Science—Some Reflections," and another issue contains a second article on the same subject by the same correspondent. It appears that the gentleman has read the full report of a lecture on Christian Science which was published in your esteemed paper, but he states that he was unable to obtain a clear apprehension of this Science from the lecture. Earnest seekers for accurate information on a given subject as a rule turn to the textbooks of that subject for such information, but the gentleman in question has turned instead to avowed opponents of Christian Science for enlightenment.

The lecture in question was written and delivered by a member of the Board of Lectureship of The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts. The lecturer is especially qualified to present the subject, for he has been a student and practitioner of Christian Science for several years and is also a teacher of this Science. In his articles the gentleman proceeds to contrast the clear, correct statements of the lecturer concerning the teachings of Christian Science with the conjectures and misconceptions of some of its opponents. It has been repeated over and over again by critics of Christian Science that it is closely related to theosophy, while the fact is that they are exact opposites. Critics persistently insist that Christian Science is mysticism and superstition, while the fact is that Christian Science is revealed truth and clears away all the mystery and superstition which has for centuries cast a veil over the words and works of Jesus the Christ, Christian Science denounces the use of mesmerism, suggestion, and human will-power as dangerous and fatal to health and morals. Moreover, Christian Science is not in any sense of the word pantheistic.

Mrs. Eddy does not teach faith cure. In her Message to The Mother Church for 1901 (pp. 26, 27), Mrs. Eddy writes: "What I have given to the world on the subject of metaphysical healing or Christian Science is the result of my own observation, experience, and final discovery, quite independent of all other authors except the Bible." What Mrs. Eddy discovered was the spiritual law which Jesus employed in healing the sick and the sinning. It was through the study of the Bible that this law was revealed to her. There can be no other source for such revelation. The textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," was written by Mrs. Eddy. She has said that she is the author of it, and the courts of the United States have decided that she is the author. There is nothing dim or mystical about its statements and it contains no contradictions. Neither Mrs. Eddy's personality nor any other personal influence enters into the teachings and practice of Christian Science; nor is any propaganda employed to gain adherents. A careful and systematic study of the textbook and Mrs. Eddy's other writings will reveal to the student that her process of reasoning is the essence of pure logic. Such study will also reveal to him that Christian Science is Christian, for it is in strict accord with the teachings of the Way-shower, Christ Jesus, and that it is scientific, because it has a fixed and unvarying Principle and rule. Right thinking in Christian Science is not merely "the following of some fixed form of thought." Right thinking or prayer in Christian Science is as joyous, unfetered, and unbounded as infinite Truth. On page 1 of Science and Health Mrs. Eddy writes, "The prayer that reforms the sinner and heals the sick is an absolute faith that all things are possible to God,—a spiritual understanding of Him, an unselfed love." Absolute faith, spiritual understanding, and unselfed love—these constitute the essential nature of right thinking, or prayer, which brings results in Christian Science. It is not an uncommon thing for persons to say that they have read the textbook and have thoroughly investigated its teachings, and then to make statements which plainly prove that they have not in the least understood its teachings and cannot demonstrate them. They are therefore incapable of passing judgment upon them.

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