Article June 9, 1928 Issue

It is easier to pull down than to construct

Mrs. Caroline Getty, Committee on Publication for France,—Paris (translation)

Le Progrès Civique

It is easier to pull down than to construct. However, when so violent and unjust an attack as that of a writer in Le Progrès Civique of recent date is launched against Christian Science, which is practiced by thousands of people the world over, and the results of which they find entirely satisfying, both in their lives and in their health, it is meet that someone should have the courage to raise his voice in its defense. Was the book referred to by our critic, "The Faith, Falsity, and Failure of Christian Science," written with a view to discovering honestly the effect of Christian Science in the world, or was it written simply to find fault with it? I can affirm that sixty-two pages of closely printed matter, or ever sixty-two thousand pages of such printed matter, would not suffice to contain the testimonies of those who have been redeemed from sin and healed of disease through the ministry of Christian Science. What would the doctors say if their failures were published in the press? Yet in many instances they fail to save their patients. Have not we all, medical practitioners and Christian Science practitioners, one aim, namely, to relieve distressed humanity? Christian Scientists do not claim that they heal every case that comes to them any more than do the doctors; they know that as yet they are but in the vestibule of this Science, but they do not doubt that the all-power of divine Principle, God, can meet every human need.

Mrs. Eddy enjoins Christian Scientists to obey the laws of the land in which they may be living and, if the laws demand it, to report to the medical authorities any case of contagious disease. There are enthusiasts in every religion who lack common sense, but the true Christian Scientist will no more think of sending his child to school or to the movies before all danger of contagion is over than will anyone else. Mrs. Eddy's teaching on this point is perfectly definite.

To heal disease in Christian Science one must understand the relationship between man and God. If man is the image and likeness of God, he should express the nature of God. This nature is, according to the Scriptures, Life, Truth, and Love. It is true that as one understands this nature, one denies evil, disease, and death. How can the latter exist if God is infinite, if Life, Truth, and Love are infinite? The practitioner of Christian Science heals his patient by understanding and proving that he is in God's hands. He must realize for the patient that divine Life is the only Life, and that it is his Life; that the truth of being is absolutely harmonious; that divine Love enfolds him, protects him, loves him. Thus does the Christian Science practitioner heal his patients. When he denies the existence of evil and disease, he does so from the standpoint of the perfection of the spiritual creation.

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