Article July 6, 1929 Issue

An evangelist's sermon recently published in your paper...

Frank C. Ayres, Committee on Publication for the State of Indiana,—Connersville

News-Examiner

An evangelist's sermon recently published in your paper quoted Mary Baker Eddy as saying, "There is no sin." This statement without explanation would give the impression that Mrs. Eddy's teaching does not recognize the presence of sin in the world. As a matter of fact, no one has been more awake to the awful bondage of sin than has she; nor has anyone except the master Christian, Christ Jesus, yearned and labored more to relieve mankind of sin's shackles. Her teaching is based entirely on Jesus' teaching. It offers hope to the sinner, as did Jesus, by turning him away from the deceitful glamour of sin to the altogether goodness of God. The accusers of the Magdalen would have bound her sins so tightly around her neck as to keep her forever in bondage. Jesus was fully aware that she was a sinner, but he did not condemn her. Instead, he saw beneath the sin the perfect child of God, and gave her such a clear glimpse of her true spiritual selfhood as to bring her instant freedom.

Christian Science teaches that sin is not real, in the sense that it is not God-created or God-sustained. Christian Science, however, does not in the least ignore sin; for in her textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 405), Mrs. Eddy writes: "Christian Science commands man to master the propensities,—to hold hatred in abeyance with kindness, to conquer lust with chastity, revenge with charity, and to overcome deceit with honesty. Choke these errors in their early stages, if you would not cherish an army of conspirators against health, happiness, and success."

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