Article April 21, 1928 Issue

In reply to a writer in a recent issue let me say that I...

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

Perthshire Advertiser

In reply to a writer in a recent issue let me say that I prefer Mrs. Eddy's own explanations on the subject of the revision of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," to the erroneous assertion made by our critic. Mr. Wiggin did not revise this book; Mrs. Eddy revised it herself from time to time. That the spiritual and material are diametrically opposed is no delusion. The spiritual is infinite, eternal, and immortal. The material is finite, temporal, and mortal. There can be no connection whatsoever between the one and the other. That which has beginning and end can never become that which has neither beginning nor end. That which is limited and finite can never become that which is unlimited and infinite. Our critic misunderstands the sufferings of Christ Jesus, who was not the Saviour of the world "through the agony of Golgotha," but through his teachings. When Christ Jesus declared, "I am the way, the truth, and the life," he referred to the Christ, the Son of God, not to his human selfhood. The crucifixion enabled Jesus to overcome death, which he did in fulfillment of his own declaration, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."

I am not deluded into thinking that I am "all Mind," as our critic avers. God is infinite Mind, and spiritual man is the reflection, image and likeness, or idea of this Mind. Christian Science teaches that mortal man is the counterfeit of the spiritual idea, man Again, I am not deluded into thinking that there is no sin manifested in mortal existence. The whole of mortal existence is the expression of sin. Christ Jesus taught us how to overcome sin, disease, and death, by knowing that they are not creations of God, but the work of the devil—evil—who, as we are told in the book of Revelation, "deceiveth the whole world." Christian Science is destroying this deception, healing the sick and the sinning as Jesus and his disciples healed them. Jesus declared that these signs would be the proofs of true discipleship for all time. Our critic is wrong in his assertion that Christian Science is pantheism. A definition of "pantheism" is as follows: "The doctrine that the universe, taken or conceived of as a whole, is God; the doctrine that there is no God but the combined forces and laws which are manifested in the existing universe" (Webster's New International Dictionary). This definition includes the material sense of the universe and the supposed laws of matter. Christian Science, on the other hand, states that God is infinite Spirit, and that the real universe is spiritual and not material.

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