Article April 21, 1928 Issue

There are many hostile writings and false reports in circulation...

Paul Gassner, Committee on Publication for Germany,

Mannheimer Tageblatt

There are many hostile writings and false reports in circulation about the religious teaching of Christian Science. The writer of the article, "The Prayer Healer Sect," in a recent issue of your esteemed paper, evidently judges Christian Science by information gained from just such hostile writings and reports. Christian Science is the name of the religion which was discovered by Mary Baker Eddy in 1866, and which, since then, has spread all over the world. It has nothing in common with so-called prayer healing sects, Weissenberg Congregation, and such like, with which it is sometimes confused. Like all religious reformers, Mrs. Eddy has been subjected to persecution and slander. Just as we cannot judge the teachings of Jesus or the deeds of our great reformers by hostile writings, neither may we do so in the case of Mrs. Eddy. "The Life of Mary Baker Eddy" by Sibyl Wilbur, a book which has been translated into German, gives an accurate account of the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science. Mrs. Eddy was most unselfish; she experienced at one time poverty and privations, and much that was later bestowed upon her out of gratitude, she did not use for herself, but employed to develop and strengthen her church.

As far as the assertions which have been made about the teachings of Christian Science are concerned, it is quite erroneous to call the textbook published by Mrs. Eddy the Christian Scientists' Bible. The foundation of Christian Science is the Bible. The Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," founded solely on the Scriptures, corroborates and explains their spiritual import. Mrs. Eddy herself has said that in her search the Bible was her only guide, and the textbook contains nothing that is not in accordance with the Scriptures and especially the teachings of Jesus, as handed down to us in the New Testament. The aim of Christian Science is to restore primitive Christianity. The healing of the sick is not the main object of Christian Science; its chief purpose is the destruction of sin; but in the healing of the sick Christian Scientists see the fulfilling of one of the stipulations of primitive Christianity, namely, to put faith into practice through works.

Christian Science differentiates between the first account of creation, in which all is created through the Word of God, and which closes with the statement that the finished creation was "very good," and the second account of creation, a so-called material creation, which is in direct opposition to the first, the purely spiritual. In the first account man is created in God's image and likeness by the Word of God alone, and no mention is made in it of sorrow, sin, or sickness. The second account describes man as created of matter, and presents an allegorical recital of how sin originated through disobedience, bringing sorrow and death in its wake. To mortals, sin, sickness, and death seem real; but in accordance with the teachings of Christ Jesus, Christian Science is endeavoring to free mankind from the fetters of material belief through the understanding of God, Truth.

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