Article March 24, 1928 Issue

My attention has been called to a "reply" to a Christian Science...

Lewis B. Sawyer, Committee on Publication for the State of Missouri,—Webster Groves

Webster News-Times

My attention has been called to a "reply" to a Christian Science lecturer published in your recent issue. The writer courteously and kindly acknowledges that "no one can object to the Christian Science religion who has felt any uplift or benefit therefrom." In the same spirit, but with no desire to carry on a newspaper controversy, I shall be grateful if you will publish this explanation of some points touched upon in the "reply" in question. In referring to the statement attributed to Christian Science that "All is Mind," your correspondent seems to think that in the "claim of faultless reasoning relative to the material universe (made by the lecturer) there is room for doubt." Probably the writer intended to refer to the statement, "All is infinite Mind," which is found in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy (p. 468), the textbook of Christian Science. It may be of interest to your correspondent to know that this claim is based on the assumption that God is All-in-all, and that a synonym for God, as used in Christian Science, is Mind. Naturally the claim is made for the spiritual universe. Since Christian Science teaches that the spiritual universe is the real, in contradistinction to the so-called material universe, which is designated as the unreal, the assertion that "All is Mind" is true.

The Bible states (John 4:24) that "God is a Spirit." The Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, states in "Unity of Good" (p. 31), "If God is Spirit, and God is All, surely there can be no matter; for the divine All must be Spirit." And it is gratifying that the writer of the "reply" acknowledges that "it is known by scientific thinkers that the world is practically nothing but vibration, or motion." This bears out the "faultless reasoning" of Christian Science, which teaches that the so-called material universe is but the objectification of mortal mind, a mental concept, and makes clear the distinction between that which is of God and that which is of the so-called carnal mind, as Paul calls it. It is true, as your correspondent states, that the five material senses seem to inform us of something other than mind, which is designated as matter; but since scientific thinkers acknowledge that "the world is practically nothing but vibration, or motion," then even matter must be, according to these thinkers, "vibration or motion."

Attention is very properly called to the result attained by the teacher of Helen Keller. All should rejoice in the marvelous results produced by the patience and love of that good woman. "Why," it is asked, "did Helen Keller, the blind and deaf woman, need the sense of touch by means of which she was introduced to the magical world of literature, her fellow beings, and the world in which she lives?" The answer to the question is very simple. Miss Keller and her teacher started out to make that demonstration from the standpoint of sense-testimony. As stated above, they did a wonderful work. They cultivated the sense of touch wisely and well, and for this we give them full credit. But Christian Science teaches that there is even a higher and more perfect method of overcoming limitations. Jesus used the method. He did not train the senses. He did not acknowledge that they could limit blind Bartimaeus, but he healed him. Christian Scientists are glad to follow the Master. Through prayer, based upon the allness of God and the nothingness of matter, they are healing the sick and overcoming limitations. They have no quarrel with those who use other methods, but insist that they can, through prayer and what they designate Christian Science treatment, produce results that are far in advance of any other method.

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