Article January 7, 1928 Issue

From the Directors

Christian Science Bible Lessons

The Christian Science Board of Directors

Our Leader has authorized The Christian Science Publishing Society to issue all literature subordinate to her writings, which may be needed "for the promotion of the interests of Christian Science" (Church Manual, Art. XXV, Sect. 1). She has also authorized the Directors of The Mother Church to see that the periodicals which are its organs "are ably edited and kept abreast of the times" (Manual, Art. VIII, Sect. 14); and one of these periodicals is the Christian Science Quarterly.

In view of the foregoing facts, we are obliged to regard a publication called "Daily Lesson Service" and issued from San Diego, California, as an attempt to interfere with a function of The Christian Science Publishing Society and of The Mother Church, and as an attempt to invade a province which our Leader has given to her Publishing Society and her church. Moreover, we feel that the publication in question would inject personal elements into the study of the Lesson-Sermons, and would be more likely to develop interest in different versions of the Bible than to contribute to the understanding of Christian Science. We have noticed, also, that the salemanship employed for the same publication is objectionable. For instance, it includes persistent efforts to induce Christian Scientists to become dissatisfied with the King James Version of the Bible.

We do not intimate that Christian Scientists should confine their study of the Bible to the King James Version. We do, however, express the view that if a Christian Scientist should desire to consult another translation or other translations, he ought to choose for himself, and ought to beware of preferring another version merely because it is different or recent. The many translations of the Bible differ in their spiritual qualities as well as in their scholarship. Mrs. Eddy examined the new translations of her time, including some of the best of the modern versions, but she used them only to a very limited extent. Moreover, she not only adopted, but continued to approve, the King James Version for the Lesson-Sermons, on which, as she has said, "the prosperity of Christian Science largely depends" (Manual, Art. III, Sect. 1).

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