Article September 8, 1928 Issue

It is pleasant to learn that though the clergyman confesses...

Charles M. Shaw, Committee on Publication for Lancashire, England, in the—Burnley

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It is pleasant to learn that though the clergyman confesses that my letter made his "brain reel," it was not entirely devoid of value, for it succeeded in correcting two errors contained in his address, namely, that with Christian Scientists health is an end in itself, and that Christian Science flourishes because "by far the greater majority" of its adherents belong to the leisured classes. He made much of the last point—which turns out to be fiction. He now tries to justify his implication by saying, "It is still true that it had its rise and earliest and most general success among the leisured." But what reason is there to suppose that this statement is any nearer the truth than his first guess? As a matter of fact, it is not correct. Christian Science began in the United States about sixty-one years ago, with Mrs. Eddy's work among the humbler classes in New England. It flourishes most among the workers "of all classes." Your correspondent made three main points against Christian Science, and two of them are definitely wrong. One can sympathize with his difficulty concerning the teaching of Christian Science as to the unreality of matter, sin, and disease, for the present writer and a large number of other Christian Scientists have had in the past the same difficulty. But it is not insuperable if we accept the assumption, namely, that God is, that He is Spirit, Love, Omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient. Christian Science in its teachings and practice is the logical deduction from this premise, as the following extracts from pages 492 and 207 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy show: "God is Mind, and God is infinite; hence all is Mind. On this statement rests the Science of being, and the Principle of this Science is divine, demonstrating harmony and immortality;" "There is but one primal cause. Therefore there can be no effect from any other cause, and there can be no reality in aught which does not proceed from this great and only cause." The existence of sin and evil cannot be attributed to God. Where then do they come from? In "Miscellaneous Writings," on page 260, Mrs. Eddy says, "Jesus knew that erring mortal thought holds only in itself the supposition of evil, and that sin, sickness, and death are its subjective states." And there is no difficulty in reconciling these statements with the Scriptures, from which, indeed, they have been derived. Jesus said: "Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it," thus defining the nature of evil as falsity claiming to be truth. But he also indicated the remedy: "If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.'

St. Paul's teaching is similar. In Romans he says: "To be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." Here it is shown quite clearly that death on the one hand and life and peace on the other are mental states. All these passages point to a negative mental state which is apparently real in human experience, but which is destroyed by the Mind which is God, the absolute Mind. This teaching may present difficulties to those whose preconceived ideas are directly opposite. But there are facts to be reckoned with that our critic makes light of. Christian Science "makes good," and consequently is spreading all over the world. Your correspondent declares that our spread does not prove its truth." No; but the cause of the spreading does—chiefly the healing of the sick. That Christian Science does heal the sick is beyond all manner of doubt to all competent and impartial observers.

The basis upon which the healing work in Christian Science is accomplished is the understanding that since God is Mind, omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient, and the real man is His reflection, therefore sin and disease are unreal. Our critic once again implies that Christian Scientists endeavor to deceive themselves by saying that they are not sick. I would commend to his notice the twenty-fourth verse in the eleventh chapter of Mark (Revised Version), "Therefore I say unto you, All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them." On his line of reasoning, this verse enjoins a species of self-deception, but on the Christian Science interpretation it contains a profound truth of immense practical import.

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