Article July 28, 1928 Issue

In the Central Baptist Church recently a clergyman delivered...

Frank J. Linsley, Committee on Publication for the State of Connecticut,—Hartford

Times

In the Central Baptist Church recently a clergyman delivered a sermon, which by previous announcement was to be on "The Health Message of Christian Science," but which developed into an unwarranted attack upon the religion of Christian Science and upon its Discoverer and Founder, Mary Baker Eddy. The clergyman, saying that he approached this subject with some diffidence, began his talk with a reading of Mrs. Eddy's early history, apparently from a book published many years ago. This book, which did not appeal to fair-minded people who desired reliable information about Mrs. Eddy, has been withdrawn from sale by the publishers. "The Life of Mary Baker Eddy" by Sibyl Wilbur is an authentic biography and may be found in many public libraries. With reference to the speaker's insinuating and disrespectful allusions to Mrs. Eddy's "matrimonial ventures," the facts are, that in her life of eighty-nine years, she was married three times, and no one has yet cited a good reason for criticism. The claim referred to that Mrs. Eddy will rise from the grave, is made by one who was expelled from the Christian Science church in 1909 for teaching and practicing contrary to Christian Science. In speaking of Mrs. Eddy, the late Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross, said in 1908: "Mrs. Eddy should have the respect, admiration, and love of the whole nation, for she is its greatest woman;" and she regarded Mrs. Eddy as "the one person, regardless of sex, living to-day, who has done the greatest good for her fellow-creatures." A considerable part of the criticism was taken almost verbatim from the writings of another minister, who has for many years been an active and unfair critic of Christian Science.

The statement that Christian Science heals only certain types of disease is not true. The healing of both functional and organic disease by Christian Science has been successfully accomplished for more than half a century. Signed statements containing testimonies of such healings are published regularly in The Christian Science Journal and Christian Science Sentinel. The healing of organic diseases by Christian Science has been proved repeatedly before courts and committees of legislatures. Dr. Charles Hunter, associate professor of clinical medicine in the University of Manitoba, during an address before the Canadian Medical Association at Regina on June 26, 1925, said: "Christian Science has helped many pesons suffering from diseases, which to the medical practitioner had defied diagnosis—Christian Science, furthermore, has brought relief to individuals who were victims of some organic disorder." Mrs. Eddy has said in her textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 358): "Christian Science, understood, coincides with the Scriptures, and sustains logically and demonstratively every point it presents. Otherwise it would not be Science, and could not present its proofs. Christian Science is neither made up of contradictory aphorisms nor of the inventions of those who scoff at God. It presents the calm and clear verdict of Truth against error, uttered and illustrated by the prophets, by Jesus, by his apostles, as is recorded throughout the Scriptures."

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