Article September 8, 1928 Issue

The editorial handling you gave the discussions concerning...

Ralph W. Still, Committee on Publication for the State of Texas, in the—Houston

Press

The editorial handling you gave the discussions concerning "new religions" that took place in a church congress recently, was timely and indicates the news value of such events. Christian Science, however, which occupied a prominent place in the discussions, was incorrectly referred to in some important particulars. In the first place, Christian Science is not a new religion; nor is it just another creedal statement or exposition of Christianity, for Christian Science and Christianity are one, the precepts and rules of both being identical. On the occasion of the formation of the first Christian Science church in 1879, Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, stated its purpose (Church Manual, p. 17), namely: "... to commemorate the word and works of our Master, which should reinstate primitive Christianity and its lost element of healing." Christian Science, then, being the reinstatement of "primitive Christianity," consistently holds that the injunction to "heal the sick" is no less obligatory on the Master's followers than to "preach the gospel;" and Christian Science teaches how this dual and indissoluble command may be obeyed, demonstrating God's power as available for the destruction of physical as well as moral ills. However, Christian Science offers no new, or easy, or peculiar way whereby the sinning may be saved, for its teachings point to the Christ, Truth, as the only "Way," and make plain that for one to experience salvation the moral and spiritual demands of the Scriptures must be met, the immutability of Truth's law being seen in the Scripture, "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."

Christian Science may be said to be "new" in the sense that its polity and organization are unique; but so far as its theology is concerned, it is that taught and demonstrated by Christ Jesus. That which is based on Truth cannot be new: it must be as ancient as "the Ancient of days;" though, owing principally to its insistence on the feasibility of spiritual healing in this day and age, Christian Science has been mistakenly considered by some as a new doctrine. The proof of the Christlikeness of Christian Science lies in the multitude of sick that have been healed through its ministrations; in the thousands of sinning and wayward that have been reformed and reclaimed; int the comfort brought to the sorrowing; in the courage and renewed hope that have been brought to the discouraged and disconslate. "By their fruits ye shall know them."

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