Article May 26, 1928 Issue

If the writer of "Sunday School Lessons" in your recent...

Thomas C. Hollingshead, Committee on Publication for the State of Idaho,—Pocatello

Tribune

If the writer of "Sunday School Lessons" in your recent issue had in mind Christian Science when he wrote, "Some so-called divine healing systems begin by the denial of the fact of sin," his remark needs some correction; for, as his preceding sentence shows, he has a very incorrect understanding of Christian Science; and what he has said might give others a wrong impression. He writes, "There are plenty of people who prefer to keep the sin question under cover." The most charitable view of his remarks—if he referred to Christian Science—is that he has permitted himself to criticize a religious system of which he has no understanding. Had he a knowledge of its teachings, he would have known that its instruction, as given in its textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy (p. 447), is that her followers must "expose and denounce the claims of evil and disease in all their forms, but realize no reality in them."

To the Christian Scientist, sin exists much as does darkness, not as an actual entity, but rather as the absence, as in the one instance, of light, and as, in the other, of that which is good and true. If sin exists as an entity, it must have been made by God, who made all that was made and declared it good; and this would mean that sin must be good. At no point does Christian Science teach that sin can be ignored, but, rather, that it must be grappled with and destroyed by all who would enjoy health and happiness. The mission of Christian Science is not chiefly that of physical healing, although this occupies a considerable part of its activity—just as it did that of the Master. Its primary aim is, as was that of Jesus, to take away the sin of the world; and every Christian Science practitioner points out to his patient the necessity of overcoming sin in order to be healed, and often quotes from the textbook (p. 404): "Healing the sick and reforming the sinner are one and the same thing in Christian Science. Both cures require the same method and are inseparable in Truth. Hatred, envy, dishonesty, fear, and so forth, make a man sick, and neither material medicine nor Mind can help him permanently, even in body, unless it makes him better mentally, and so delivers him from his destroyers." It is well worth the while of anyone who may be interested in what Christian Science teaches on this subject, or on other subjects, to obtain from a public library or from a Christian Science Reading Room the textbook of Christian Science. He will find its teachings to be in strict conformity with those of Christ Jesus and the apostles.

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