In an article in your issue of June 1, a certain pastor criticizes...

Coos Bay Harbor

In an article in your issue of June 1, a certain pastor criticizes those who heal the sick and charge for their services, quoting Jesus' statement, "Freely ye have received, freely give." He omitted, however, to explain that when Jesus said that to his disciples as he sent them forth on their healing mission, he also told them to make no provision for their material needs while on the journey, "for," said he, "the workman is worthy of his meat."

If clergymen, doctors, and charity workers are paid for their time and services as they are, and properly so, should it not be considered fair and in line with Jesus' teachings that others also who heal the sick should be compensated without being charged with "covetousness"? Some may think, as our critic seems to, that Christian Science practitioners are "fooling the people," but the fact remains that those who accept Christian Science come to understand the spiritual nature of their healing and prove for themselves the truth of its doctrines.

In regard to the insinuation that there must be something wrong "for a person to make a million dollars out of service rendered to our Lord and Christ," let me say, that depends upon what use is made of the money. In the case of Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, she followed closely in the footsteps of the Master, leading an unselfed life, generously contributing to outside charitable purposes, and finally willing practically her entire fortune to her church, that the work she had inaugurated might go on, solely that others "might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly."

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