Article December 15, 1928 Issue

Your recent issue contains a synopsis of a sermon...

Charles W. J. Tennant, District Manager of Committees on Publication for Great Britain and Ireland,—Stirlingshire, Scotland

Stirling Journal

Your recent issue contains a synopsis of a sermon preached by a minister on the subject of "Christianity and Christian Science." From the report, his knowledge of Christian Science seems to be very superficial, for at times he expresses opinions about Mrs. Eddy, her teaching, and the practice of Christian Science, which are quite erroneous. For instance, Mrs. Eddy never studied mesmerism with a view to practicing it, but she investigated the subject in order to expose its wrongness. Again, the Rev. J. H. Wiggin did not compile with Mrs. Eddy the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." After Mrs. Eddy had written this book, the Rev. Mr. Wiggin, who had been proofreader for the University Press, Cambridge, was engaged by her to defend her grammatical construction, because, as she says on page 318 of her book, "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany," "at that date some critics declared that my book was as ungrammatical as it was misleading." She also says on page 317 of the same book, "It is a great mistake to say that I employed the Rev. James Henry Wiggin to correct my diction. It was for no such purpose. I engaged Mr. Wiggin so as to avail myself of his criticisms of my statement of Christian Science, which criticisms would enable me to explain more clearly the points that might seem ambiguous to the reader." Christian Science is not a mixture of Berkeleianism, spiritualism, and mesmerism, as our critic avers. This would have been perceived by him if he had really studied the Christian Science textbook; for there are two chapters contained therein entitled respectively, "Christian Science versus Spiritualism" and "Animal Magnetism Unmasked," which reveal the erroneous nature of mesmerism and hypnotism.

Christian Science explains the incarnation, the resurrection, and the trinity in a manner which is clear and concise, leaving none of the ambiguity or mysticism which is prevalent in so-called orthodox teaching on these subjects. Healing through Christian Science is brought about through spiritual understanding. It is much more than simple faith-healing as commonly understood to-day. It is the method of Christ Jesus, and should be the only one employed, since his method was the most successful the world has ever known. Our critic is reported to have said that "Christian Science, with its crude metaphysics, was a denial of the very existence of what we all took for granted." This makes it none the less true, since it conforms absolutely with Revelation 20:11, in which John declares that he "saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them." This text certainly removes all that the material senses take for granted. Our critic is mistaken in his belief that "educated people, with the power of deductive reasoning, would never, after a close study of Science and Health, take Mrs. Eddy seriously." Some of the most profound thinkers are to-day studying the Christian Science textbook, and are acknowledging that it is opening up for them a spiritual vista they had never comprehended before.

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