Article November 17, 1928 Issue

I quite agree with the Englishman who was quoted in a...

Ralph B. Textor, Committee on Publication for the State of Ohio,—Dayton

News

I quite agree with the Englishman who was quoted in a recent issue of the News as saying that Christian Science presents "the highest form of philosophical conception of the American optimism," if by this is meant the optimism referred to by the New International Encyclopedia, as follows: "Usually philosophical optimism is based on the theoretical ground that the omnipotence, perfection, and wisdom of God as Creater guarantee the perfection of His creation." A basic teaching of Christian Science is the allness of God, or good, and the perfection of God and His creation. Mary Baker Eddy, the Founder and Discoverer of Christian Science, makes repeated reference in her textbook to the record of the perfect spiritual creation in the Bible, as narrated in the first chapter of Genesis. In referring to the last verse of this chapter, on page 518 of the above-mentioned textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mrs. Eddy writes: "The divine Principle, or Spirit, comprehends and expresses all, and all must therefore be as perfect as the divine Principle is perfect."

Christian Science, however, is not a form of human philosophy. Mrs. Eddy has made this very clear in Science and Health. She has written on page 144 of the textbook: "The various mortal beliefs formulated in human philosophy, physiology, hygiene, are mainly predicated of matter, and afford faint gleams of God, or Truth." On page 99 she has said: "Christian Science teaches only that which is spiritual and divine, and not human. Christian Science is unerring and Divine; the human sense of things errs because it is human." The reported statement of the critic that Christian Science is "utterly American," and that he "never heard of a French or Irish Christian Scientist," would make him appear provincial. The Christian Science Mother Church has 376 branches outside of the United States, of which 262 are in Europe; and this last number includes branches both in France and Ireland. It may be of interest to your readers to know that the Christian Science textbook has for some time been printed in French and German as well as in English, and that The Christian Science Publishing Society prints two monthly periodicals in these languages, and the Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lessons in six foreign languages.

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