Article December 8, 1928 Issue

In a recent issue of your esteemed paper you designate...

Hans Frey, Committee on Publication for German-speaking Switzerland—Zofingen (translation)

Schweizerische Allgemeine Volks-Zeitung

In a recent issue of your esteemed paper you designate Christian Science as the doctrine of prayer-healing, that is, the healing of sickness by prayer. In a general sense this is, to be sure, what the expression "prayer-healing" means; but it is not a correct definition of Christian Science. The term "prayer-healing," which is often used for Christian Science in German-speaking countries, is apt to cause much confusion. It is unknown in America. The New International Encyclopædia, second edition, New York, 1914, contains, for instance, the following: "Christian Science. The name given by Mary Baker Eddy to the discovery which she made in 1866 and the religion which she afterward founded. As its name indicates, Christian Science is an interpretation of the religion taught and practised by Christ Jesus. It purports to be the science of God and His universe, including man, and the science of salvation from all evil."

Christian Science does not work "with suggestions or autosuggestions." On the contrary, it is founded on understanding; and what one has once recognized as true can hardly be said to be suggestion or autosuggestion. Christ Jesus discriminated clearly between Christian healing and healing by hypnotism or suggestion of any kind when he said, "If I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you."

Christian Science teaches that "sin makes its own hell, and goodness its own heaven" (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, p. 196). "Grafting holiness upon unholiness, supposing that sin can be forgiven when it is not forsaken, is as foolish as straining out gnats and swallowing camels" (ibid., pp. 201, 202). "The way to escape the misery of sin is to cease sinning. There is no other way" (ibid., p. 327). From these few short but unambiguous sentences it may be clearly seen that little is gained by merely saying that "everyone has only to recognize himself and believe in his sinless, divine perfection, or in a being created by God, hence holy and mature for heaven, since there is no such thing as sin and the day of judgment." In matters of faith Christian Scientists leave each one to his own choice.

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