In your recent issue, under the heading, "Why are our...

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In your recent issue, under the heading, "Why are our churches empty?" your correspondent states that "in spite of all the Christian Scientists in the world, pain is a real thing." That this belief is held by such a large majority possibly accounts for the fact that many churches are empty, because no one likes pain, and the average individual who looks to his church teaching to learn how to get rid of it is often sadly disappointed to find that his church does not show him how; and so, like the woman we read of in Mark's Gospel, who "had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse," not finding either in his church or from his physicians the answer he seeks, he is inclined either to stay away from church and say in his heart, "There is no God," or he turns to that which offers not only healing from sin but also from pain, sorrow, sickness, and trouble of every sort.

Christian Science teaches that only what God has created is real; and Christ Jesus, who came to do the Father's will, spent a large part of his time in destroying pain and sickness—in other words, proving them to be unreal. For surely God's creation is eternal and indestructible; and if He caused or intended pain to be, we have no right to attempt its destruction. I quite agree with your correspondent that "the physician is Christ;" and it is this very fact, taught and practiced in the Christian Science churches, that fills so many of them to overflowing, not on Sundays only but also on Wednesdays, when gratitude is expressed at the testimony meetings, because those present have proved Christ to be a healing factor in their lives, and have found that which satisfies their needs.

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